Mindich pressured Umerov to purchase low-quality bulletproof vests from shady business establishment - Nikolaienko
Co-owner of the Kvartal-95 studio, Timur Mindich, was behind the corrupt scheme involving the contract for bulletproof vests.
This was announced on Facebook by the deputy head of the Public Anti-Corruption Council at the Ministry of Defense, Tetiana Nikolaienko, according to Censor.NET.
"Well, now I have a reason to celebrate my personal victory over Mindich. For a year, I have been fighting against the contract for bulletproof vests from Milikon, because it was a corruption scheme, only to finally find out that ... Mindich was behind it.
You already know that Mindich pressured Defense Minister Umerov to purchase Israeli bulletproof vests, in which he has invested his 300 million (what has been made public is part of the suspicion against Mindich)," she said.
Details
In winter, SLO announced a tender worth 1.6 billion for 75,000 bulletproof vests, which was won by a little-known company called "Fortress of Protection."
It came and won at the lowest price. The fact that it was not contracted was just a matter of chance—the company did not have a license to sell. However, Ukrainian manufacturers had such licenses," Nikolaienko said.
At the same time, SLO canceled the tender because it "chose the interests of a specific Mindich rather than those of Ukrainian manufacturers."
A month later, SLO announced a new tender, but this time for only 200 million. It was won by another shell company, Milikon, purchased two days before the tender, with a sample bulletproof vest taken from "Fortress of Protection". Convenient, isn't it?
What happened next? Well, of course. The company failed to deliver the first batch of supplies, and instead of Israeli body armor, Ukraine received Chinese junk that was riddled with bullet holes and poorly sewn. And at every meeting with SLO, I barked, asking when they would terminate this contract. SLO kept a straight face. They gritted their teeth and didn't terminate it. Now it's clear why. The entire former minister of defense didn't dare ignore Mindich," she added.
According to Nikolaienko, SLO terminated the contract on the last day.
Later, the head of the relevant department who signed this contract, Victoria Vinohradova, was heroically transferred to the Defence Procurement Agency for reasons unknown. And the minister became secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.
The only good thing is that the state did not pay for these armored vests," she concluded.
Earlier, the SAPO prosecutor stated that Mindich had influenced, in particular, Umerov, who held the position of Minister of Defense.
Later, Umerov rejected these statements.
What preceded it?
- Earlier, Censor.NET reported that NABU was conducting searches at Mindich's residence, who left Ukraine a few hours before the searches.
- As reported, on Tuesday, 4 November, searches were conducted in one of the branches of the separate divisions of NNEGC "Energoatom" in connection with a corruption case.
- The NABU is also conducting searches at the home of former Energy Minister Halushchenko and at "Energoatom".
- The NABU and the SAPO announced a large-scale operation to expose corruption in the energy sector.
- Current Minister of Energy Svitlana Hrynchuk appears on recordings obtained by NABU as part of its investigation into corruption in the energy sector.
- Later, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau uncovered an office in central Kyiv belonging to the family of former MP and current Russian senator Andrii Derkach, where a "black ledger" was kept, cash was tracked, and money-laundering operations were organized.
- On 11 November, NABU released recordings featuring Minister Halushchenko and Mindich.
- The main figures in NABU’s leaked recordings from Operation "Midas" are "Rocket" (the so-called overseer of Energoatom) and "Tenor" (Energoatom’s executive director). According to media reports, they are Ihor Myroniuk and Dmytro Basov, respectively. In the conversation, they discussed mechanisms of pressuring contractors to extort money.
- On the evening of November 11, the High Anti-Corruption Court considered a pretrial measure for Andrii Derkach’s former aide, Ihor Myroniuk.
- On 12 November, the head of the Ministry of Justice and former Minister of Energy Halushchenko were removed from office.
