In 1980, Yushvaev was convicted of robbery and spent nine years in a Soviet prison camp, a fact revealed in a prospectus issued during Yushvaev's subsequent business career. After getting out of prison in 1989, Yushavev partnered with David Yakobashvili. In 1993, they invested in the Lianozovo Dairy Plant, which would later become Wimm Bill Dann.