Valuable personnel of Ministry of Defence: Who and how helped Hrynkevychs make billions on army
A year ago, the country learned about the Hrynkevych family, which earned millions of dollars on contracts from the Ministry of Defence but never delivered the jackets and shirts. At the time of Hrynkevych’s detention, the biggest question was who had introduced him to the MoD tenders. This question remains unanswered to this day.
Although yesterday, the SBI served a suspicion on the former acting head of the procurement department, Maksym Hrytsenko. And perhaps further interrogations will reveal new names and details in this process.
In the meantime, the author can tell you what this story looks like from the perspective of a year and a half of work in the public anti-corruption council of the Ministry of Defence.
So, on Tuesday, the State Bureau of Investigation served a notice of suspicion to one of the officials of the Ministry of Defence who "wrote off" almost UAH 94 million in fines to a Lviv businessman for overdue contracts.
According to the agency, in 2023, companies controlled by the businessman entered into contracts with the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine for the supply of military clothing - in particular, the companies signed 23 agreements worth more than UAH 1.5 billion.
Although the law enforcement officers did not name the businessman, it can be concluded from this message that it is the case of Ihor Hrynkevych.
The latter was detained a year ago when he tried to bribe one of the heads of the SBI's Main Investigation Department for $500,000 to help return property seized from companies he controlled during the investigation.
On 17 January 2024, he was also served with a notice of suspicion in the case of procurement of clothing for the Armed Forces.
The companies affiliated with Hrynkevych signed more than 20 contracts with the Defence Ministry's Public Procurement Department, but never received the supplies, including jackets, shirts, and trousers.
Since then, the Hrynkevych family has acquired luxury property in Kyiv, Kozyn, and the Czech Republic. The family also bought a hotel complex in the Lviv region. And in the winter of 2023, Svitlana Hrynkevych and her daughter became co-owners of a sand quarry in the suburbs of Lviv.
After the elder Hrynkevych was served with a notice of suspicion, the father and son were detained and arrested by the court.
In addition to them, the heads of their related companies were detained - the director of "Trade Lines Retail", Volodymyr Tymkiv, and the director of the "Citigrad" Construction Company, Viktor Kuzminskyi. These companies were suppliers to the MoD.
In July, the SBI completed the investigation of Hrynkevych's case and referred it to the court for consideration on the merits.
At the same time, at the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine filed an application with the State Bureau of Investigation to recognise the ministry as an injured party in the case against companies associated with the Lviv businessman. The Ministry of Defence also announced the termination of the last contract with the company associated with the Hrynkevychs, "Trade Lines Retail", which supplied products to the Armed Forces.
However, one question remained: how were construction companies allowed to supply material assets to the Ministry of Defence?
It seems that on 12 November 2024, the SBI gave a partial answer to this question when it served a suspicion on the former head of the DDZ, Hrytsenko. It should be noted that Hrytsenko received this position after the dismissal of the odious head of the same department, Bohdan Khmelnytskyi. In general, Hrytsenko's first declaration in the MoD dates back to 2021, and he joined the Ministry in 2020.
Interestingly, according to the information available to Censor.NET, Hrytsenko had a quite successful banking career before that. However, most of the banks closed down afterwards.
For example, Hrytsenko was the acting chairman of "Zakhidinkombank", whose main owner was Arsen Yurievych Ivaniushchenko. (It is the Ivaniushchenko family that the media associates with the "Viiskservice-Volunteer" group, which is now represented in its work with the MoD by Atomservice. This company received the largest volume of supplies (worth UAH 7.9 billion) after the launch of Prozorro in the summer of 2023).
He also worked at TC "Credit Bank", one of the owners of which was "Ukroboronprom" through "Antonov". He also briefly worked at "Terra Bank", whose owners are now hiding in Russia and the occupied Crimea.
Perhaps it's just an unrelated coincidence. Just like the fact that, after positions in banks, a person went to work for 100,000 salary a year in the Ministry of Defence.
Also, according to his personal account, Hrytsenko took part in Petro Poroshenko's rallies (these photos have now been removed).
Yesterday, an official of the Ministry of Defence was suspected of "writing off" almost UAH 94 million in penalties to a Lviv businessman for overdue contracts, the bureau's press service reports.
According to the publication's sources, when representatives of the MoD's legal department were ready to go to court over the undelivered goods, the official in question continued to fulfil the contracts through additional agreements. Thus, he reduced the amount of the penalty by the specified 94 million.
And he did so after Hrynkevych was caught taking a bribe.
"The person decided to make money at the last moment," joked one of Censor.NET's interlocutors in the Ministry of Defence. However, it should be noted that the former MoD official has not yet been charged with illicit enrichment or obtaining undue advantage.
In fact, Hrytsenko has been under interrogation by law enforcement since at least May 2023. To date, the Ministry of Defence has received more than one request from law enforcement agencies regarding his activities.
"We don't even rule out that he was some kind of their representative in the ministry - although whether they brought him or they agreed later, I won't tell you," the source said.
Whatever the off-the-job relationship between Hrytsenko and the Hrynkevychs, his decisions raise a number of questions.
After all, the Accounting Chamber's report expressed reservations about the contracts concluded.
As a reminder, one of the Hrynkevychs' companies, "BUILDING ALLIANCE MONTAZHPROEKT" LLC, failed to meet the deadline for the delivery of tangible property (by 31 May 2023) worth UAH 425 million under the terms of 5 contracts, including:
- under contract No. 286/3/23/109 dated 23.02.2023, "Combat shirt type 4, type 3" - 85,000 pcs for UAH 80,748.3 thousand - was not delivered;
- under contract No. 286/3/23/113 dated 23.02.2023, "Pants of summer field suit, type 4, class 7" in the amount of 75,000 pcs. for UAH 74,848.5 thousand were not delivered;
- under the contract dated 23.02.2023 No. 286/3/23/114, "Summer field suit made of fabric type 4, class 7" - 100,000 pcs for UAH 199,800.0 thousand - was not delivered;
- under the contract No. 286/3/23/115 dated 23.02.2023, Polo shirt, type 1 - 34,400 pcs for UAH 17,131.2 thousand - was not delivered;
- under the contract No. 286/3/23/116 dated 23.02.2023, "Insulation suit jacket, type 2" - 36,000 units for UAH 52,559.28 thousand - was not delivered.
The list of activities of the said company did not include specialisation in the production (tailoring) of clothing.
Its main activity is 41.20 (Construction of residential and non-residential buildings). Moreover, at the time of concluding the contracts, "BUILDING ALLIANCE MONTAZHPROEKT" LLC was involved in criminal proceedings dated 13.06.2022 No. 12022000000000510 and 04.10.2022 No. 42022020000000397.
Similarly, another company of the Hrynkevychs, "SITIGRAD CONSTRUCTION COMPANY" LLC, failed to deliver tangible property worth UAH 493 million on time (by 31 May 2023).
"SITIGRAD CONSTRUCTION COMPANY" LLC also did not specialise in tailoring - its main activity is 41.20 (Construction of residential and non-residential buildings). It was this company that was involved in the scandals over the unfinished construction at "Shyrokyi Lan".
The company is involved in the same criminal proceedings as "BUILDING ALLIANCE MONTAZHPROEKT".
However, each of them received half a billion hryvnias from the Ministry of Defence.
The Accounting Chamber's report states that if the MoD had applied the correct qualification criteria and taken into account all risk factors, these deals would simply not have taken place.
The Hrynkevychs' third company, "TRADE LINES RETAIL" LLC, also failed to fulfil contracts worth UAH 585 million as of May. The military did not receive any panama hats or summer jackets from it.
Nevertheless, "TRADE LINES RETAIL" LLC continued to participate in the Ministry of Defence's tenders and received contracts worth 1.3 billion for food alone. This was the third largest volume of supplies.
In addition, the Hrynkevych family was associated with another company, "VT Development", which was registered in the name of the businessman's daughter and wife. This company entered the army food market in 2023. Its contracts (concluded in the mode of direct agreements) by April 2023 amounted to 1.7 billion.
In autumn 2023, "TRADE LINES RETAIL" LLC won 2 contracts for the supply of 125 thousand pairs of rubber boots. At the same time, no one else participated in the tender.
Companies that wanted to participate in the tender called the MoD's requirements unrealistic at the time. After all, deliveries under the tender announced at the end of September were to take place by the end of October 2023.
This leads to a logical suspicion that the tender was announced for one company.
All these tenders were conducted by a collegial body of the Ministry of Defence, which also included the head of the DDZ, Hrytsenko.
At the time of the signing of the contracts with "Citigrad", "BAM" and "Trade Lines Retail", the odious head of the department, Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, had already been fired. Hrytsenko was the acting head. He remained in charge until the launch of the SLO, after which the department was liquidated. It was only in August-September, in the midst of the scandal over winter Turkish jackets, that the head of the DDZ went on leave. It was interesting, because it was Hrytsenko who signed the last acts for those scandalous jackets.
On the same day, the Hrynkevychs' companies - "TLR" LLC, "BAM" LLC and "BC Citygrad" LLC - signed contracts with Turkish companies OZMAN and DEXXON for the supply of jackets. Agreements were also signed with the Ukrainian companies "INTER-TEKST" and "FABRYKA VIISKOVOGO ODIAGY".
However, those goods that were nevertheless delivered to the warehouse were later recognised by the expert as "unfit for their intended purpose, as they do not meet the requirements set out in the relevant technical specifications".
In other words, the story of the Hrynkevychs' jackets is the same as that of the Kasai jackets. They were made in Turkey and did not meet Ukrainian specifications. The cancellation of Defence Ministry Order 375 on quality control, which was reinstated only after the Defence Intelligence Agency's demands, allowed these schemes to be implemented and millions of dollars to be made.
At the same time, while the Minister of Defence's awareness of the specifics of violations in such contracts can only be hypothetically imagined, the head of the department knew and understood it for sure.
It is worth noting that if the SBI continues its work, it will find similarly interesting work of the relevant department on oil supply contracts for 2023.
From conversations with sources in the Ministry of Defence, it becomes clear that law enforcement officers had been interrogating Hrytsenko for more than a year. In fact, when he went to interrogations, he also could not help but realise that he was under close surveillance. But despite this, he allowed himself to reduce the fines for the Hrynkevychs.
In order not to "frighten him away", Hrytsenko was even allowed to resign from the MoD himself. But this story has another unclear nuance - who and why advised Hrytsenko to join the Defence Procurement Agency, where he stayed for two weeks.
Tetiana Nikolaienko, Censor. NET
