The ex-wife of the billionaire Buryak revealed the terrifying details of the breakup with him. Biography of Margarita Viktorovna Buryak Margarita Viktorovna Buryak what she does

Over the past few years, Alfa Group has been unable to sell the Akrikhin pharmaceutical plant, which it acquired back in the mid-90s. First one company, then another, looked closely at the enterprise, until finally in January of this year it was announced that this Moscow region enterprise was bought for $40 million by Dmitry Buryak, the founder of the network marketing empire Vision International People (VIP) Group.

The news caused a stir. One of largest factories came to a company that produces biologically active supplements (dietary supplements), herbal teas, creams, as well as jeans, in the creation of which “special copper threads are used, allowing the use medicinal properties copper." All these products are distributed through a network of 170,000 independent distributors - usually women over 40. They gather for noisy corporate events in movie theaters specially rented for the occasion. Everything is exactly like the founders of this business - the American manufacturers of dietary supplements Herbalife and Neways.

Is such a symbiosis possible?

Buryak himself does not doubt this at all. He wants to overcome mistrust in dietary supplements, and at the same time prove that his company is capable of moving mountains in the drug market. “I need Akrikhin so that the pharmaceutical market will also respect me,” the entrepreneur admits in an interview with Forbes.

DIETS AND MEDICINES. Fate threw Buryak around the world, so the company he eventually built turned out to be not entirely Russian.

VIP Group produces dietary supplements at the facilities of its Irish subsidiary. The products have “telling” names - “Antiox+” (antioxidant), “Detox+” (removes toxins), etc. - and is sold through representative offices in 11 countries, including Vietnam, although the main supplies still fall to Russia and the CIS. Shares of VIP Group (60% owned by Buryak) are placed on the Cyprus stock exchange, the company's capitalization in February was $180 million.

VIP Group's business is developing, but not at a frantic pace - according to the results of nine months of 2004, sales volume increased by 12%, amounting to $60.3 million, while in the third quarter it completely decreased - by 24% compared to the same period last year . Buryak is inclined to blame the pharmaceutical lobby for the slowdown in growth, which demands stricter rules of the game in the market for dietary supplements.

Pharmacists really have a grudge against dietary supplement manufacturers. The volume of this market in Russia has already reached $1 billion. According to the research company Pharmexpert, 27% of Muscovites, for example, do not see the difference between a bioactive additive and medicine. “The boundaries between them are blurring,” states Pharmexpert. This means that pharmaceutical companies, whose products must undergo clinical trials and a strict certification procedure, have to compete directly with manufacturers of dietary supplements, which are not formally considered medicines and whose introduction to the market is much cheaper.

Whether the notorious lobbyists are to blame or not, last October the main sanitary doctor In Russia, Gennady Onishchenko banned the circulation of a whole class of bioactive additives - those containing extracts of the kava-kava plant (also known as intoxicating pepper). Vision had to stop selling the anti-stress product Repen, which included a banned ingredient (a replacement is now being sought). The ruling also affected other manufacturers of dietary supplements, including Neways. “They used to give kava-kava to children, but now it is considered poison,” Buryak is indignant.

The struggle for distributors distributing VIP Group products is also getting tougher. There are more and more companies operating on the principle of network marketing, but the likelihood of getting rich from this is becoming less and less; a resident of the Russian outback who makes money by selling bioactive supplements can easily switch to distributing a competitor’s products or even Avon cosmetics in general if this company offers more favorable conditions. Previously, Vision had an undeniable advantage - the program for working with distributors was extremely simple. While other companies' descriptions of remuneration systems could take dozens of pages, Vision's everything fit into a simple formula: 5% commission at the two lower levels, 10% for everyone above. (You can move from one level to another by involving in the system certain number new distributors.) Now simplicity alone is not enough: in order to expand the network, Vision had to raise commissions for particularly active beginning distributors four times last year - up to 20% of sales.

As for the pharmaceutical lobby, it’s now a sin for Buryak to complain about it: after all, after purchasing Akrikhin, he himself fell into the category of drug manufacturers. Another thing is that the drug industry is still new to the founder of Vision. “Pharmaceutics is a specific community,” says Buryak. “I don’t want to be the Varangian there who broke everything.” The entrepreneur has already assigned a team to Akrikhin led by his trusted manager Alexander Lazuto (management company Health Tech Corporation). But how Akrikhin will develop further has not yet been decided - the new owner is only thinking about expanding the geography of sales of Akrikhin’s drugs.

Independent experts are also at a loss as to what can be done revolutionary in former enterprise"Alphas". Last year, Akrikhin produced $54 million worth of medicines, a significant portion of which came from sales of the cardiovascular drug Capoten, produced under license from Bristol-Myers Squibb. Another popular Akrikhina drug is Vectrum multivitamins, also produced under license. Akrikhin, like most other Russian pharmaceutical plants, does not have its own developments; its entire range is generics. This means that the company is forced to compete with numerous manufacturers of exactly the same drugs. Akrikhin’s growth resource lies in the competent positioning of drugs, says Pharmexpert executive director Nikolay Demidov.

However, all this is well known to Buryak from the dietary supplements market. And his rich entrepreneurial experience taught him, as he himself says, “not to rest your eyes on your own trough,” but to look at things more broadly.

TIME TO COLLECT STONES. As a child, Buryak collected semiprecious stones. Together with the same young geologists, he traveled from Moscow to the Ural mines, looked for almadins, garnets, pyropes - and then sold them to buyers at the Bird Market. At the age of 13, he “had enough of his own money to buy a bicycle.” “I fell in love with geology, I read Fersman and Vernadsky. I was stimulated by the fact that I knew how to make money from minerals,” the entrepreneur recalls.

Buryak entered the Moscow Geological Exploration Institute and went to work at the Institute of the Diamond Mining Industry, but he did not live on the modest institute salary. His acquaintances brought him semi-precious stones from expeditions, and Buryak sold them; sometimes he earned up to 10,000 rubles a month. During Gorbachev’s time, Buryak founded one of the first cooperatives in the USSR - he knitted fishnet tights and cast slippers from plastic. This turned out to be even more profitable than buying minerals.

Then there was the company "Anis", named after Buryak's senior partner, former administrator of Uzbekconcert Anis Mukhametshin (last year the entrepreneur was detained on charges of tax evasion in special large sizes). Anis imported and sold products under its own brand: cognac, champagne, ice cream, perfume. The business was a complex barter cycle. “We supplied food to miners and received other assets - such as coal. Coal was transported to factories where coke was made from it. Coke was sold metallurgical enterprises for metal The metal was transported to Romania to make, for example, fenders and hoods for Lada cars. Spare parts were given to those who made Lada cars, and the Lada cars were again exchanged for coal. And the profitability turned out to be 3000%,” admires the head of Vision.

At the same time, the creators of Anis were engaged in show business. Long before the “Star Factory” - it was the end of the 80s - they created the “Star Factory”, from which, in particular, the popular group “Na-Na” came off the production line. Since then, Buryak has kept good contacts in show business and hosting skills mass events. Both were very useful in network marketing with its thousands of celebrations with the participation of pop stars.

After leaving Anis back in 1991, Buryak continued to trade commodities. He managed to wedge himself into oil supplies under an intergovernmental agreement with Kazakhstan. Things were going well until Buryak, a fan of driving very fast, got into a car accident in 1995. He injured his spine and, according to doctors, he should not walk for at least three years. Former Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Sergei Tereshchenko, with whom Buryak was well acquainted through the supply of oil and coke, recommended him his doctor, who knew unconventional techniques. He got the businessman back on his feet in six months.

During his illness, Buryak, as he himself says, changed his attitude towards life. “I forgot about this metallurgy and factories. It seemed to me that if only I pulled through, I would talk about important goals - about health,” explains Buryak. “I saw this as a huge opportunity for some kind of business model.” In addition, while Buryak was recovering, many opportunities were missed - competitors intervened in the matter. A businessman, for example, lost everything related to oil, leaving only operations with coke. It got to the point that Buryak had to leave Russia and settle in Nice, where he had a house. In Europe, he also found a model for a new business.

In 1995, Buryak met American entrepreneur Douglas Matthews. Together they registered a representative office in Europe of the network company Achievers Unlimited, which sold dietary supplements. We agreed that Buryak would develop the Achievers business in Russia. However, Matthews's own company did not last long. Buryak invited foreign managers from the collapsed company and began to create his own empire - Vision International People Group.

Together with the French Arko-pharma Group (turnover in 2003 - €228 million), Vision built a plant registered to the Irish company Nutripharma, in which it owns 35%. Since then, this company has been producing all Vision dietary supplements, and the formulation is being developed by Arkopharma specialists.

While dealing with health products, Buryak for some time retained his assets in the coal industry. In 1997, Buryak and his partner even came under the control of 51% of the shares of the Altai-Koks plant, one of the largest coke-chemical enterprises in the country. But three years later, Buryak ceded this plant to the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company of Iskander Makhmudov. “I gave it to Iskander inexpensively... In general, this price suited me,” explains Buryak. At the beginning of February 2005, the capitalization of Altai-koks on the RTS was $252 million.

CONSUMER SOCIETY. Like most founders of network companies, the president of VIP Group is a charismatic person. He thinks globally. On Buryak’s personal website in the “Quotes” section you can read his saying: “Each of us is personally responsible for the fate of the planet.” And at the same time, Buryak can spend a long time and patiently explaining to the secretary how to answer phone calls correctly, and then he himself will call the reception and check whether the lesson went well.

Another feature of Buryak is that he is a staunch supporter of delegation of powers. For example, he fully trusts his team in determining the future of Akrikhin: “The plant will be developed by specialists. If they end up giving me a strategy that doesn’t have Vision [products], then they won’t be there.”

One day, however, his instincts failed him. At the end of 2002, Buryak bought for $15 million the leader in the food delivery market by catalogue, the Moscow company Service 77. Under the terms of the deal, the team led by former owner Igor Kudryakov was to remain at the helm of the company. From the outside, everything looked great: through Service 77, for example, they began selling herbal teas from the Lithuanian factory Svencioniu vaistazoles, owned by Buryak. It was only a year later that Vision’s management discovered that something was wrong in the acquired company. The business plan was not implemented, in addition, Kudryakov issued promissory notes for $3 million without the consent of the board of directors. “Every month a financial hole was formed that had to be covered,” says Stanislav Odintsov, Buryak’s legal adviser. “At some point the company began to resemble a financial pyramid.” (Kudryakov, however, believes that stories about poor management were an excuse to deprive him of the 10% stake in the company promised under the deal.) The sad result of this takeover: Service 77 ceased operations this winter, and Odintsov was tasked with liquidating company.

Buryak, however, does not rule out that Service 77 will be revived in one form or another. He says the business fits well with his “healthy lifestyle concept” because it “allows people to save time.” Perhaps Buryak hopes to sell his new product through catalogs - “healthy” drinks without preservatives and heat treatment, which will be produced by the Aqua Vision factory currently under construction in the Moscow region, worth tens of millions of dollars. This project is led by specialists hired by Buryak from Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.

The ultimate goal of an entrepreneur sounds completely global. It's about nothing less than “creating a community of healthy food consumers.” In this difficult matter, Buryak relies on marketing technologies that are unavailable to traditional companies, namely, the same army of Vision distributors. In the end, these are 170,000 people who are obviously loyal to any product produced by Buryak’s enterprises. They do not have the right to distribute medicines - according to the law, pharmaceuticals can only be sold in pharmacies, but they can become buyers of Akrikhin products. “All these people are consumers,” agrees the Vision creator. “They will say: since Buryak owns Akrikhin, it means the quality is better here.”

When it comes to dietary supplements, faith is half the battle. “Here 60% of the psyche and 40% is the effect of the dietary supplement itself,” explains Buryak. Well, now he has to find out whether the same proportion applies to drugs.

The ex-wife of the “king of dietary supplements” said that after the divorce he left his family without a livelihood

The divorce of oligarchs rarely happens without major scandals. Especially when it comes to dividing billions of dollars. Billionaire Dmitry Buryak, who made his fortune on dietary supplements, and his wife Margarita officially divorced in February, after 29 years of marriage, “quietly.” However, judging by the application to the prosecutor’s office from the oligarch’s wife, which was at the disposal of Life, immediately after the separation, the 58-year-old businessman threw his ex-wife and three children out of the door without warning. The youngest, Philip, was 18 years old at that time; until recently, the young man studied abroad at his father’s expense. The beautiful fairy-tale life behind the strong back of her oligarch husband collapsed overnight for Margarita Buryak. Now the woman faces a long “war” for the jointly acquired property, the value of which is estimated at approximately one billion dollars.

Dmitry and Margarita Buryak

Dmitry and Margarita Buryak were once considered one of the most exemplary couples in Russian business. The lovers met when future bride barely 15 years old. The young man in love humbly waited three years to take the girl down the aisle. Together they went through thick and thin - from the businessman’s criminal record at the dawn family life before creating one of the largest sales networks food additives. Margarita gave her husband three children: two daughters and a son, whom the man called the meaning of his life. Resident of a prestigious Forbes rating presented his beloved blonde with flowers and expensive jewelry, fulfilling her every whim. So that his wife would not sit idle, Dmitry helped her create her own charitable foundation helping children from orphanages.

“Family has always been the basis of life for me,” Dmitry Buryak admitted in his interviews. “Margarita is my destiny, the mother of my wonderful daughters and long-awaited son, the meaning of my existence.”

In marriage, Margarita gave birth to Dmitry three children - two daughters and a son

The first public discord in happy family happened in 2009, by that time the couple had crossed the turquoise wedding line, having lived together for 18 years. Margarita was noticed in the company of the then single Andrei Malakhov. The woman spent more than one evening with the popular TV presenter, even managing to visit him in his homeland in Apatity. Feelings for the new favorite faded, barely having time to flare up, Margarita returned to her husband again. However, the weather in the luxurious house of the oligarch and his wife did not improve for long. Seven years later, the woman found out that her husband was hiding his mistress and two children in another country.

I was told that Dmitry has had a second family in Ukraine for more than ten years. He often flew there, because he has another business there,” Margarita admits.

Realizing that there was nothing left to save, Margarita Buryak filed for divorce. However, such a “rebellion” was not to the liking of the businessman, whose plans did not include the wayward act of the once beloved woman. According to Margarita, having decided to punish his wife, Dmitry hit her with a ruble, stopping funding for her charitable foundation and throwing her out the door with her things.

Margarita Buryak was spotted more than once in the company of Andrei Malakhov

The day after the divorce, returning from work, I could not get into not only our house, but also the territory of the village,” says Margarita Buryak. - I had to call the police. But the employee who arrived said that the house belonged to my ex-husband and I could no longer be there.

According to lawyer Margarita Buryak, his client became a victim of injustice, because the mansion, located in an elite village near Moscow, was purchased with money from the general family budget.

In February, we filed a claim for obstruction by Dmitry Arkadyevich Buryak in the residence of his ex-wife on the territory of a land plot acquired during marriage,” says the woman’s lawyer. - But until June this case did not move from a dead point. Dmitry himself lives abroad, and ex-wife and evicted the children to nowhere. He posted security, hired some migrant workers, who even threatened Margarita. Dmitry filed a counterclaim demanding that his ex-wife be deprived of the right to use the house. The court satisfied his demands. He refused us. Which is a gross violation, since this house is joint property. And, despite the fact that Dmitry is the owner, both spouses have ownership over him equal rights. Unless otherwise provided in the prenuptial agreement, which my client did not enter into.

On August 31, a hearing will be held again in the Moscow Regional Court - the woman decided to go to the end and appeal the deprivation of her rights to use a common house in higher authorities.

Dmitry and Margarita Buryak for a long time were considered a model couple

In addition, Margarita filed a statement with the Investigative Committee, the FSB Directorate, the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs with incriminating testimony incriminating the oligarch in organizing an organized crime group and money laundering through his company Vision International People Group, which produces dietary supplements popular in Europe.

The amounts that were withdrawn abroad and imported into Russia are of a significant size and of dubious origin, writes Margarita Buryak in her statement. - My ex-husband heads this criminal group, which includes seven more people. They cashed out money through shell companies. I learned about this when I was allowed to manage one of his Russian companies.

Also, according to Margarita Buryak, the ex-husband, without notifying the Russian Federal Migration Service, received dual foreign citizenship - Ukraine and Greece, which is a criminal offense.

Recently, he lived abroad, explaining this to me by saying that he had “disagreements” with the Russian authorities and it was undesirable for him to be on the territory of the Russian Federation, continues Margarita. - I believed. After all, in the nineties he was a member of the famous criminal group of the Cherny brothers. Later he served 2.5 years in prison for attempted fraud and obtaining a loan using forged documents. But really, all of us life together tried to convince him that it was a tragic mistake that he would never repeat.

Last year, the Buryak couple (left) issued eldest daughter get married

Valeria Romanova

Born on December 7, 1957 in Moscow.
Since childhood, Dmitry was distinguished by his extraordinary curiosity and desire for the unknown. At the age of 10, he independently went on a geological expedition, where he felt his calling - the study of Nature.

After graduating from school, he entered the Moscow Geological Prospecting Institute named after Sergo Ordzhonikidze and, after a break associated with military service, graduated in 1985, becoming a geological engineer with a specialty in “Exploration of rare and radioactive minerals.” Then he worked at the Research Institute of the Diamond Industry, introducing new abrasive materials, and from time to time traveling “to the field.” Without interrupting his work, he entered the Institute of Culture, where he received a new specialty - director of cultural events.

With the beginning of democratic changes in Russia, D.A. Buryak took up free enterprise. Collaborated with non-ferrous and ferrous metallurgy enterprises.

In 1995, a successful businessman felt that his potential had ceased to be fully realized. He was trying to figure out how to structure his activities to be useful people. In the same year, Dmitry because car accident suffered a serious spinal injury. While struggling with the threat of paralysis, he came to understand that the main value human life- health and life itself. Thanks to the talent of doctors and his own fortitude, he completely defeated the disease and returned to normal life. Then I made a decision: to devote myself and my whole life to people - their health and longevity.

The search for a new business began. By chance, Dmitry Buryak met Fabrice Kererve, who told him about network marketing - a progressive system for distributing goods and services through a network of independent distributors. Dmitry realized the huge potential of this system.

The choice of product for distribution had already been predetermined by this point - products related to in a healthy way life. The organizational experience of previous years could not have come at a more opportune time. In just a few months, a huge amount of work has been done to create and produce biologically active food additives that are unique in their properties.
In parallel with this, the infrastructure of the new company was formed and a distribution network was built.

By the summer of 1996, D. Buryak took a number of steps to create network company, after which it took place in Moscow official opening « Vision International People Group. Like-minded people appeared who believed in the success of the new business. This gave them the strength to overcome all difficulties. The “Vision” distribution network began to take shape, numbering today more than 400,000 distributors in Russia alone.

From the very beginning, the main principle of the Company was teamwork for the benefit of the common cause. And those people who stood at the origins of the Vision International People Group have always adhered to this principle. These are Dmitry Buryak, Fabrice Kererve, Jean-Marc Colaianni, Roberto Piona, Aram Harutyunyan. Dmitry Buryak - President Vision. Today, Vision International People Group is an international network company that distributes dietary supplements and health-improving cosmetics. Its products are distributed in many countries around the world.

To promote a healthy lifestyle, the Company and its distributors constantly organize sports, cultural, health and other events. In cultural events " Vision» the most famous people take part public figures, artists, musicians, famous athletes, doctors, fashion designers. For example, in 1998 in Russia the Company took part in organizing concerts of Laima Vaikule, creative evenings Igor Krutoy, Evgeny Kemerovsky’s tour, Fashion Week in Moscow. In addition, using " Vision“a match of Soviet basketball veterans was held in Kyiv and concerts by Irina Blokhina; a telethon “Let’s fill our hearts with love for mothers and children” was held in Kyrgyzstan under the auspices of the Company.

The company and distributors actively cooperate with the Red Cross, constantly holding charity events, donating products " Vision» to those in need. Orphanages, hospitals and societies for the disabled in Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine regularly receive the Company's products worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Dmitry Buryak - academician International Academy natural products and biotechnology, member of the London Directors' Club.
Lives and works in Moscow.

Biography, life story of Margarita Viktorovna Buryak

Margarita Viktorovna Buryak is the head of the Russian charitable foundation MISSIA, socialite, ex-wife of oligarch Dmitry Buryak.

basic information

Margarita Buryak was born in Yaroslavl. The girl met Dmitry Buryak at the age of 15. During the marriage, Margarita gave birth to three children: Yana, Lydia and Philip, having lived with him for 29 years. The husband ran a nutritional supplement company. The business was so successful that Buryak was nicknamed “the king of dietary supplements.”

Scandalous divorce

The dissolution of the marriage was initiated by Margarita, who suddenly learned about her husband’s other family living in Ukraine. At the same time, Dmitry immediately refused to continue financing Margarita’s charitable foundation. The husband also stated that he would not provide financial support to either his ex-wife or their children.

The woman’s lawyer, who reported filing a lawsuit in court, said that her ex-husband prevented Margarita from living in their common house, purchased in marriage. The building was guarded by Dmitry's personnel. The man himself lived abroad, but he also filed a lawsuit demanding that his ex-wife be deprived of the right to use the house. The court agreed with these requirements, although they were illegal, since the real estate is considered joint property.

In his statements, the man denied that he deprived his ex-wife own home. Dmitry repeatedly reported that Margarita wrote him a letter in which she categorically demanded that he pay her certain funds.

Margarita Buryak wrote statements to ex-spouse to the FSB Directorate, the Investigative Committee, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General's Office. In her appeals, the woman accused the oligarch of creating criminal group and illegal “laundering” of funds through Dmitry’s company Vision International People Group, which produced popular dietary supplements.

CONTINUED BELOW

At the end of the 2000s, the famous showman began to be noticed at various social events in the company of Margarita Buryak. At that time, the Buryak couple were considered an exemplary couple of Russian high society. There were persistent rumors that he communicated with Margarita only for the sake of her 16-year-old daughter, whom he had his eye on as his wife. However, the rumors were not confirmed.

Journalists noticed Buryak in her homeland, Murmansk. There they rested together during New Year holidays. After some time, Buryak stopped appearing in public, and the nature of their relationship remained a secret to the general public.

MISSIA Foundation

Since 2004, the MISSIA organization has been dealing with the problems of children from orphanages in the territories of Belarus, Russia, Vietnam, Armenia, Lithuania and Bulgaria. Margarita Buryak is the founder and president of this charitable structure.

The Foundation considered such concepts as tolerance, fulfillment of humanistic desires, respect for older generations and cultural heritage. The main project of the organization was a festival called “Christmas Dream”.

Every year, children from different cities of Russia and other countries came to Moscow from 50 orphanages to visit Santa Claus. Over 12 years, more than 1,500 people attended the festival, these were guests, teachers and children without parental care.

Margarita Buryak claimed that the charitable foundation is financed by personal and private donations. She also planned to develop fundraising and crowdfunding. However, after the divorce from Dmitry Buryak, it turned out that only he had financed the fund all this time.