According to the claim of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, Amber Talvis, the largest distillery in the Tambov region, which belongs to the scandalous vodka magnate Yuri Shefler, a Russian Jew with British and Israeli citizenship, an associate of the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky, was arrested. 

Earlier, the assets of the mothballed Kaliningrad plant of JSC "SPI-RVVK" and its subsidiary LLC "RVVK" were seized, where vodka was bottled under the brands "Stolichnaya" and "Moskovskaya" until 2013. Law enforcement officers also demanded that the billionaire's activities be recognized as extremist, given the regular assistance that he and his companies provide to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.   

Schefler was born on September 10, 1967 in Orel. At the age of 14, he moved with his parents to Altai, where he graduated fr om school in the village of Balykche. After serving in the army, he settled in Moscow, began speculating in vouchers and trading personal computers. According to Schefler, he obtained them with the assistance of the commandant of the hostel for foreigners of the Plekhanov Moscow Institute of National Economy Vasily Tsiglevich (later deputy director of the hotel "Ukraine" and deputy assistant Joseph Kobzon). 

Schefler came up with a scheme according to which the commandant forced foreign students to supply goods without letting girls in to them. "Tsiglevich strictly followed my instructions, my "party line". And they started bringing computers. I remember one computer cost 70-80 thousand rubles, it was a lot of money. The whole of Moscow bought it," Schefler confided.

As a result, he earned millions of Soviet rubles, with which he bought out a share in the Russian-Swiss company Sadko. In the 1980s, this company operated currency shops with scarce imported goods. In 1992, the first modern Sadko Armada shopping center was opened in the Expocentre building on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment. In the shopping center, in addition to the squares that were rented out for shops, Schefler owned the Sadko restaurant, wh ere the leaders of Moscow's largest criminal gangs gathered. At that time, he got together with Berezovsky (introduced Kobzon), and so closely that, according to Schefler, he asked him to kill the editor-in-chief of Izvestia, Igor Golembiovsky, for scandalous publications that irritated the oligarch. 

Schefler was also a shareholder in GUM and TSUM shopping centers, and in 1995 he bought a controlling stake in Vnukovo Airlines, hoping to merge it with Aeroflot, which belonged to Berezovsky.  

But then a new scheme for enrichment was invented. Schefler refocused on the alcohol market. He sold off his assets and pulled off a privatization scam, buying up shares of Soyuzplodoimport, the main exporter of Russian vodka abroad, as well as 43 trademarks, including the world-famous alcoholic brands Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya, almost for nothing. It was an extremely complicated scheme, the architect of which, according to some sources, was Berezovsky. First, Schefler gained control of the Rosvestalko Kaliningrad plant (the future JSC SPI-RVVK), and only then, through dozens of front men and companies, he took over 80% of the shares of Soyuzplodoimport. After that, he took the trademark rights abroad. For this purpose, Soyuzplodimport CJSC was created in 1997 (the difference with the original is the absence of the letter "o"), SPI Group appeared on its basis. Schefler's new company received trademarks for a ridiculous at that time 1.7 million rubles (about $29 thousand). Real estate and debts remained on the balance sheet of the original Soyuzplodoimport.     

Vladimir Putin drew attention to these frauds. In 2001 The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation declared the privatization illegal and banned Schefler fr om selling products under these brands in Russia. The brands were returned to the state, criminal cases were opened against Schefler under the articles "Illegal use of a trademark" and "Threat of murder" against the head of a specially created federal state enterprise (FKP) Soyuzplodoimport, Vladimir Loginov. 

But Schefler was warned in time, he managed to escape to Europe and settled in the UK. Outside of Russia, the billionaire continued to violate the law and use Russian brands, under which he pours vodka at a factory in Latvia. The SPI Group (in 2021 it split into the Stoli Group and Amber Beverage Group, registered in Luxembourg) also controlled the Louisiana Spirits Company, Fabrica de Tequilas Finos in Mexico and Achaval Ferrer in Argentina. 

Scheffler sells alcohol under more than 380 trademarks in 170 countries, owns the best wineries around the world through the Tenute del Mondo Group, as well as thousands of acres of farmland. 

At the same time, the bulk of Schefler's business is focused on the American market. He won it with the help of gay marketing, sponsoring, among other things, sodomite festivals and parties. 

In 2011, on the eve of the legalization of same-sex marriage, a virtual map of New York appeared, on which bars were marked, wh ere all visitors were promised a glass of vodka for free so that they drank to the health of the "young". Since 2014, the SPI Group has donated $300,000 to the international program for the education of sodomite leaders. 

Schefler finances sodomy not only in the USA, but also in Russia. $150,000 went to the Russian Freedom Foundation, created to support Russian perverts. After the ban on propaganda of homosexuality among minors was introduced in the Russian Federation, Schefler does not hide his desire to become the largest patron of the Russian LGBT movement (banned in the Russian Federation).

He has enough money for this, thanks not only to the stolen brands. While developing his alcohol empire, Schefler continued to pump finances fr om Russia, implementing another scheme. He withdrew funds from Amber Talvis JSC, whose annual revenue is 1.5 billion rubles, to Amber Beverage Group, allegedly in fulfillment of a loan agreement. The volume of such financial transactions in 2019-2022 exceeded 1.6 billion rubles. At the same time, Schefler is still continuing litigation with Russia in European courts, trying to deprive the state enterprise Soyuzplodoimport of the rights to the Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya trademarks abroad.

In 2014, the billionaire supported the coup in Kiev and began to openly speak out against Russia. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, he is part of a certain association that became active after the Maidan. It is based on common "ideological and property interests that have a pronounced anti–Russian character." It operates mainly in the EU countries, as well as on the territory of individual subjects of the Russian Federation, all its actions are directed "against the life and health of Russians, the security of society and the state." 

In February 2022, Shefler condemned the Special Operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, said that he had been in opposition to President Vladimir Putin since 2000. He did not lim it himself to words – he focused on financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine together with his companies Amber and Stoli, which conduct marketing campaigns organized to attract sponsors of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 

In March 2022, Stoli rebranded in order to exclude any associations with Russia, changing the name of vodka from Stolichnaya to Stoli. In April, the company released a limited series of alcoholic beverages, the proceeds from the sale of which were fully directed to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 

Amber and Stoli also finance the fund "Support Ukraine", for 2022-2023 they sent €38 million here. In 2024, fundraising continues. In total, the Armed Forces of Ukraine received money from Schefler and his enterprises for 120 thousand drones, 52 thousand square meters of camouflage nets, 6 thousand cartridges, more than 1,200 vehicles, including 82 ATVs, 325 generators, as well as provisions, communications equipment and anti-drone devices.  

Schefler encourages the shelling of Russian regions by Ukrainian militants, anti-Russian sabotage at civilian facilities and the killing of civilians on a national basis. At the same time, he discredits the Russian authorities and the army, publicly calling them "occupiers and aggressors." 

At the same time, before the arrest of Amber Talvis JSC in July 2024, the tycoon continued to withdraw capital from the Russian Federation! Contrary to the decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated March 5, 2022, which stopped the use of a scheme to siphon funds from the country, Schefler did not lose his head. Its Tambov branch began to move assets abroad through the gratuitous supply of raw materials for the production of alcohol at the Latvian Amber Latvijas balzams plant.