Forbes takes further steps to deny fugitive Kurchenko foreign-language publishing license

Business journalism pioneer Forbes Media has taken further steps to deny fugitive Serhiy Kurchenko and his Ukraine Media Holding publishing rights to the local edition of Forbes Ukraine, according to an emailed message that Forbes’ corporate communications head Mia Carbonell wrote to Liga news on Aug. 6.

The message was in reference to U.S. government sanctions that were imposed on Kurchenko on July 30, which prohibits U.S.-incorporated companies from doing business with him, either directly or indirectly, through companies in which he has a 50 percent or greater interest.

As a result, Forbes denied Kurchenko’s UMH, the publisher of Forbes Ukraine, “access to the Forbes brand.”

“Forbes no longer provides UMH authorized use of the Forbes brand for UMH’s website or provides Forbes.ua http://forbes.ua domain name services to UMH,” Carbonell wrote.

Ukrainian media portal liga.net published an emailed message on Aug. 6 from Forbes' spokeswoman Mia Carbonell that says Serhiy Kurchenko's UMH media holding has been deprived of its license to publish the Ukrainian edition of Forbes magazine. 

The same day, Forbes Ukraine changed its domain name to forbes.net.ua, and it contains content under the Forbes brand as recent as Aug. 9 in the Russian language.

UMH said the fact that Kurchenko has been sanctioned “has no bearing on the rights of UMH to publish the magazine and use the brand name of Forbes,” the company said in statement published on its website.

“UMH paid for the (publishing) rights through the year 2018 and has the right to continue using it,” the statement read.

Forbes Media terminated the foreign-language license of Forbes Ukraine in 2014, but Kurchenko challenged the action and continued to publish the magazine locally.

Kurchenko, 29, purchased Forbes in the summer of 2013 following a series of investigations the magazine reported on his meteoric rise in Ukraine’s oil industry that alleged he dodged taxes and had a monopolistic grip on the sector because of political coverage – subsequent investigations by Ukrainska Pravda and other Ukrainian media alleged he was a proxy for ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and his allies.

Serhiy Kurchenko is wanted by Ukrainian authorities for large-scale property fraud and is presumably residing in Russia. 

Once the acquisition was finalized in November of that year, 13 Forbes Ukraine journalists resigned after publishing an open letter that alleged the publication had enacted editorial censorship policies.

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry says Kurchenko, a native of Kharkiv, disappeared on Feb. 19, 2014 at the height of the popular uprising EuroMaidan Revolution that led to Yanukovych abandoning office. The ministry’s wanted list says he is accused of large-scale property fraud. Kurchenko is presumed to be living in Russia.

In July 2014 the Forbes family sold a majority stake in its media empire to a collection of investors led by Integrated Asset Management (Asia) Ltd., founded by investor Tak Cheung Yam, Bloomberg reported citing a statement by Forbes. The transaction was valued at $475 million.

Kyiv Post