ENG

30.12.23 10:40 127 429 71

Gold rail carriage, sand quarry and luxury parties: why Ministry of Defense supplier bribed SBI with $500 thousand

SBI officers detained a Lviv businessman, one of the largest suppliers to the Ministry of Defense, who offered a USD 500,000 bribe to one of the heads of the Bureau’s Main Investigation Department for assistance in returning property seized from companies under his control during the investigation.

According to the UP source, it is Ihor Hrynkevych. His face was also posted by law enforcement through anonymous telegram channels.

According to the SBI report, several months ago, the Bureau opened criminal proceedings over fraudulent purchases of clothing and underwear for the Armed Forces. The Lviv businessman's companies won 23 tenders to supply the Defense Ministry with clothing worth more than UAH 1.5 billion.

During the investigation, it was established that the defense orders involved companies controlled by the businessman that were previously engaged in construction and did not have sufficient production, warehouse and other facilities for the manufacture and storage of material property for the needs of the Ministry of Defense.

This resulted in preliminary estimates of UAH 1.2 billion in losses to the budget and, accordingly, disruption of supplies.

Apparently, this is the same fact that has already been described in the report of the Accounting Chamber. That was just two months ago.

One and a half billion delay on jackets, and this is just the beginning

For the first time, Hrynkevych's companies came to the author's attention 2 months ago, thanks to a report by the Accounting Chamber. It stated that three companies connected in one way or another with this businessman failed to fulfill tenders for about UAH 1.5 billion.

Thus, BUILDING ALLIANCE MONTAZHPROEKT LLC, whose registered list of activities certainly does not include specialization in the production (sewing) of military uniforms and accessories, failed to meet the delivery date under 5 contracts worth UAH 425,087.28 thousand. As a result, the military did not receive their uniform shirts, insulated pants, and summer field suits on time.

This company is owned by the son of the SBI detainee, Roman Hrynkevych, who received a volunteer award from Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Similarly, SITIGRAD CONSTRUCTION COMPANY LLC undermined the agreements.

This LLC failed to meet the deadline for the delivery of military uniforms and accessories (by 31.05.2023) for UAH 493,495.78 thousand for a similar group of goods.

A cursory search on Google shows that this company is not only related to the previous one, but has already worked with the Defense Ministry. And even then, the Ministry of Defense had problems with it.

At the end of 2021, the Mykolaiv Center for Investigative Journalism wrote that Citihrad was involved as a shell corporation in the construction of the headquarters of a new military town at the Shyrokyi Lan training ground, which is the largest in southern Ukraine

The tender itself was won by Zhytomyr-based Construction Alliance Montazhproekt LLC for more than UAH 44 million. One of the conditions was that no subcontractors were to be involved in the work. However, this company hired Citihrad, which in turn hired an Odesa-based company, Economy Energy Engineering, which actually performed the work but never received full payment.

The third Defense Ministry supplier from the same category that failed to deliver supplies on time and was highlighted by the Accounting Chamber is Trade Line Rail LLC. It failed to deliver supplies worth UAH 585,447.74 thousand on time.

TRADE LINE RETAIL LLC received contracts for army catering worth UAH 1.3 billion in the second half of 2023 at Prozorro alone.

The company has a 2 million authorized capital. Its head is Volodymyr Ivanovych Tymkiv. Back in May, the final beneficiaries were Olha Ihorivna Shved, who is 100% of the beneficiaries of VT Development, and Svitlana Hrynkevych. She is the daughter and wife of the detained Hrynkevych.

By the way, VT Development entered the army food market in 2023. Its contracts by April amounted to 1.7 billion. And the company supplied food to the Odesa region.

In addition, Svitlana Hrynkevych is the owner of the Hope.UA charitable foundation.

If you go to the foundation's website, you will see many beautiful photos of children and gift wrapping. There's also a photo of Hrynkevych with the head of the Lviv Regional State Administration, Kozytskyi.

Meanwhile, if you go to the register of court decisions, you will see a much less beautiful picture.

Land plots at the expense of disposable tableware for the army

It turns out that since the beginning of 2023, the said group of companies and its satellites have been trying to lift the seizure of their property. But this time it was in the proceedings of the National Police.

The Pecherskyi Court adjudication provides more details of this case.

It turns out that the proceedings have been ongoing since June 2022.

It refers to a scheme to fraudulently seize budget funds in especially large amounts during the supply of goods for military needs to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, using companies: PERSPEKTYVA MISTO BUD, CONSTRUCTION ALLIANCE MONTAZHPROEKT, TRADE LINES RETAIL, AND CITYHRAD CONSTRUCTION COMPANY.

During the pre-trial investigation, it was established that the officials of PERSPEKTYVA MISTO BUD LLC entered into contracts with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for the supply of goods for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, namely: bulletproof vests, bulletproof helmets and disposable tableware for a total amount of more than UAH 500 million.

In pursuance of these agreements, the company received UAH 17.96 million on 11.05.2022 (for disposable tableware for the Armed Forces of Ukraine) and UAH 490.17 million on 09.06.2022 (prepayment for property for the Armed Forces of Ukraine - bulletproof vests and bulletproof helmets). These funds were transferred by the State Treasury Service of Ukraine to the company's current account.

On June 10, PERSPEKTYVA MISTO BUD transferred UAH 220 million and UAH 150 million to its own settlement accounts.

After that, UAH 63.8 million was transferred to SITIHRAD CONSTRUCTION COMPANY LLC for construction materials.

UAH 78.88 million was transferred by the same company for construction materials to LLC "BUILDING ALLIANCE MONTAZHPROEKT".

UAH 0.3 million, according to the investigator, went to the current account of TRADE LINE RETAIL LLC.

Another part of the money went to the private accounts of the defendants in the proceedings.

In addition, UAH 35.10 million was transferred to SVISS KRONO LLC for the purchase of a land plot and UAH 78.8 million for the purchase of a building nearby.

Access to the data on the land plot is currently blocked by an adjudication of the Pecherskyi Court.

Interestingly, the SSU has proceedings on the same contract. And the court ruling there mentions the number of helmets and bulletproof vests. And it somehow surprisingly coincides with the amount of volunteer assistance from the Hrynkevych Foundation. For some reason, the news about this has disappeared from their website.

The investigator indicates that in July 2022, PERSPEKTYVA MISTO BUD LLC (Unified State Register of Enterprises and Organisations of Ukraine/EDRPOU code 41654425) transferred funds to other enterprises for about UAH 90 million with the purpose of payment "for construction materials and mechanisms".

In addition, there are possible facts of overstatement of the cost for about UAH 4.56 million, during the purchase of disposable tableware for the Armed Forces of Ukraine by PERSPEKTYVA MISTO BUD LLC at the expense of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

Investigators suspected that the money was subsequently cashed out and therefore requested first searches and then seizure of property.

However, by the decision of the infamous Judge Serhii Vovk, the seizure of the property of the Hrynkevych companies was lifted.

In addition, the registry contains another ruling on a lawsuit filed by the Defense Ministry, where it asks to enforce 80 million from Construction Alliance Montazhproekt LLC for uncompleted construction work in one of the military units.

This is not to mention other construction projects won, the scandals around which were enough for an entire article. For example, young Hrynkevych, who ran as a "Servant" candidate, received an award from the head of the regional state administration for the reconstruction of a museum. And then it turned out that it was impossible to raise the temperature in the room. But a museum is for mammoths - they don't need that heat...

The dilemma of the Ministry of Defence and the ideal psyop

From this story, we can now talk about the Ministry of Defense's big dilemma - whether to enter into contracts with such companies in the future. As a matter of fact, the existence of a proceeding is not a sufficient reason - competitors and opponents can quickly write up such a thing. But a one-year delay in delivery seems to be a sufficient reason not to sign an agreement with such a supplier. So that later the Minister of Finance does not ask where the money from the budget disappears.

There is another warning from this case. The proceedings also involve the Hrynkevychs' charitable foundation, which was involved in reconstruction projects.

The media reported that the foundation's delegation visited Lublin, Bratislava, Vienna, Brno, and Prague, where they met with representatives of Ukrainian embassies, local authorities, and organizations providing humanitarian aid to Ukrainians. They presented the Sich social housing project for forced internally displaced persons - low-rise residential complexes with all the necessary infrastructure and workplaces.

It will be a great story if it turns out that the Europeans were brought to the defendants in criminal proceedings by state officials. In addition to the photo with Kozytskyi, Hrynkevych also has a photo with the head of the Ministry of Defense, Mykhailo Fedorov.

And in general, the lifestyle of young Hrynkevychs creates a perfect psyop for Russians to discredit us in Europe and to quarrel among themselves.

"In the winter of 2023, Svitlana Hrynkevych and her daughter became co-owners of a sand quarry in the suburbs of Lviv. Each of them will get a third of Karieroupravlinnia PJSC in the village of Zeliv, which has a valid permit from the Lviv Regional State Administration to extract sand on the territory of tens of hectares. Given that UAH 20 million was paid for a similar special permit for an area of 5 hectares at a recent auction, the quarry purchased by the Hrynkevychs will cost tens of millions of hryvnias," according to the investigation into the family.

In March 2023, Svitlana Hrynkevych bought the Kateryna motel complex, built on the bypass road near the Arena Lviv stadium.

The authors of the investigation also point out that the family has purchased luxury real estate in Kyiv and Kozyn.

On August 27, in the second year of the full-scale invasion, Olha Hrynkevych posted a photo of herself in a golden Ukrzaliznytsia carriage used to transport VIP guests. Then she re-collected herself and deleted the post, but the photos remained in the TabloID publication. Hrynkevych also posted classic Instagram photos from her birthday and vacation in Sardinia.

Journalist Yevhen Plinskyi found out that the detainee's son, Roman Hrynkevych, was the subject of an investigation by Mykhailo Tkach about "War-tired visitors of the capital's Boho club." He drove his new BMW car worth about $150,000.

In addition, Plinskyi writes that Roman Hrynkevych has a fiancée, Sonia Moroziuk.

Recently, an advertisement for her exhibition "Maznia" could be seen at the Gulliver shopping center. The 20-year-old artist also presented her painting to the president. In addition, the girl has a collaboration with Ruslan Bahinskyi and a handbag company.