Budget issues of Vadym Stolar
Last week, the Kyiv District Court made a rather unexpected decision. Not in terms of justice, but because of the defendants involved. The court refused to take the side of the Restin company, which is shadowed by Viktor Medvedchuk and Vadym Stolar, and did not force the Ministry of Culture to give permission to build a Museum of Outstanding Ukrainians in the historic zone.
Until now, or rather for 10 years, this company has been quite successful in resolving its issues through the courts regarding the land near the museum.
Given the fact that in recent months members of Stolar-Isaenko's Renaissance group, Artem Dmytruk and Yevhen Shevchenko, have become involved in criminal proceedings, and the group itself has not voted for the budget, although it is usually a vote donor for the ruling party, one might think that there is bad blood once again between the group's unofficial leader and the authorities.
However, even a cursory look at the situation suggests otherwise.
On November 19, during the adoption of the budget, Vadym Stolar's group did not vote for it. Some Facebook users even linked this to the fact that People's Deputy Yevhen Shevchenko had been detained a week earlier. Shevchenko was actually elected as a majoritarian in Zaporizhzhia, but after leaving the "servants" he "garrisoned" in Stolar's group. He even attended his charity events.
However, the reason turned out to be far more prosaic and closely aligned with Vadym Stolar's core interests.
It was voiced by Valerii Ihnatenko, a member of the group, from the rostrum of the Rada. In fact, Stolar's associates did not like the fact that in the budget for 2025, the government allocated one billion hryvnias for the eRestoration program and another 3 billion for compensation for damaged property.
"We called for almost 10 billion hryvnias to be allocated for the restoration of housing for affected Ukrainians, for the eRestoration program. Even in the first year of the war, more than 10 billion was allocated. Now the government has allocated less than half of that - only 1 billion for compensation and 3 billion for destroyed housing," the People`s Deputy noted.
In January 2024, more than 27,000 apartment buildings in Ukraine were damaged or destroyed as a result of Russian aggression. Under government programs, you can receive compensation for damaged housing; and for completely destroyed housing, you can receive a housing certificate (which can be used to purchase new housing) or funds for construction (only for private homes).
And obviously, large developers are interested in participating in this. And for Stolar, who is one of the largest players in the market (and once even had the status of a "supervisor" of construction in Kyiv), 3 billion is not enough.
The amendment to allocate 10 billion for eRestoration was also made by the head of the Servant of the People party, one of the authors of the scandalous construction law 5655, which, fortunately, was not signed by the president.
However, since the amendment was not taken into account, Stolar's group did not vote. In full force. Despite the fact that these people's deputies took part in other votes.
"They knew that they would have enough votes, so they decided to play the opposition," a source from the Servants of the People said.
On the same day, the group's deputies cast their votes in other votes, albeit not in a significant number.
In general, the people's deputies of the mono-majority did not consider their relations with the group to be conflicting, despite the criminal proceedings against Artem Dmytruk and Yevhen Shevchenko.
And other stories show that despite the SSU's searches in early 2023 (when law enforcement sources said that Stolar's commercial structures were involved in illegal money laundering schemes in the interests of former deputies Viktor Medvedchuk and Taras Kozak), the deputy is not in conflict with the authorities.
A few weeks ago, another series of investigations by Maksym Opanasenko of Bihus.info was published about how Viktor Medvedchuk's former assets ended up in the hands of Stolar's people instead of being confiscated in favor of the state.
In July 2022, the court seized three companies in which stakes associated with Medvedchuk and his wife were found: "Akadem-Klub, Orest, and Osokorky-7. The main assets of these companies are long-term lease agreements for 50 hectares on the banks of the Dnipro River in Osokorky.
However, no arrests were actually made, as prosecutors "forgot" to register the court ruling with the state registrar, and these companies did not appear in the register of arrested persons.
Instead, during 2023, all three companies changed their ownership structure several times.
Prior to the arrest, all three companies were owned by companies associated with Taras Kozak and Medvedchuk, as well as by entities associated with People's Deputy Stolar and a little-known businessman Valerii Mishchenko (previously mentioned by journalists in the context of stories about Ukrbud).
First, the construction assets passed into the hands of Stolar's people, including a person who was listed in special applications as his driver (Oleksandr Biliavskyi), and then two new owners appeared: Petr Tohramadzhan from Bulgaria with a criminal history and Vadym Ivanov from Riga
But this year the situation changed again. Following another journalist story, on 19 July, the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv granted the prosecutor's motion to seize the asset and transfer it to the management of the ARMA.
But then Stolar's people began to challenge the ownership of the rights again. In particular, a Cypriot company affiliated with the People`s Deputy transferred its share to Stanislav Laher, and the company itself went to the Commercial Court to demand that the share that was once bought from Oleksandr Biliavskyi be transferred to it.
And while the trial is ongoing, and the state representatives forgot to go to the state registrar to record the court's decision, the company is already building a residential complex on the Dnipro riverbank.
Not counting Medvedchuk's assets, Stolar is a co-owner of at least four development companies operating in the primary real estate market in Kyiv: ENSO, BudCapital, IB Alliance and bUd development.
At the beginning of the war, many people predicted that Stolar's companies would decline, as it was unclear whether anyone would be able to buy new housing and how to build it under fire.
But journalistic investigations showed that instead, the People`s Deputy was successfully developing his business in the UAE. Or rather, a business registered to his ex-wife.
In 2022, Inna Maistruk became the owner of six new companies in the United Arab Emirates. Two of them have the same name as the Ukrainian construction company - ENSO. ENSO INVESTMENT L.L.C. and ENSO DEVELOPMENT L.L.C. were registered in Dubai in May-June 2022.
In addition, according to the declaration in 2022, Stolar and his family keep more than three million dollars in a bank on the island of Dominica, more than two million euros in the Austrian Oberbank and $700,000 in banks in Dubai.
Stolar divorced Maistruk in the fall of 2023. He announced it publicly, which is something that politicians do quite rarely. However, after that, the deputy was seen with his ex-wife, in particular, they crossed the border in the same car.
Therefore, it is possible that the divorce was only required formally. Together with Maistruk, a significant amount of property disappeared from Stolar's declaration: a 2062.8 sq. m. residential house in Kozyn, located on three land plots with a total area of 0.6 hectares, three more land plots of 0.4 hectares in Kozyn, a 103 sq. m. residential house and two land plots in Kyiv, 2 Mercedes-Benz cars and a Toyota land cruiser.
Also missing from the declaration were a Hermes dinner set for 24 people, two sets of silverware, a collection of 30 Hermes bags and 6 Chanel bags, 5 fur coats, including furs from Fendi, Valentino and Nijole, a collection of 10 SAINT-LAURENT dresses a collection of 8 BALMAIN dresses, other dresses and coats from world designers, 5 ROLEX watches, VACHERON CONSTANTIN, HARRY WINSTON, DEWITT watches, furniture sets and a long list of jewelry.
But this is not the main thing: Along with Maistruk, Stolar's corporate rights and beneficial ownership disappeared from her declaration: 89% of Construction of Educational Institutions LLC, 100% of CLOSED NON-DIVERSIFIED VENTURE CORPORATE INVESTMENT FUND STREAM INVESTMENT, 25% of CLOSED NON-DIVERSIFIED VENTURE CORPORATE INVESTMENT FUND AURORA. The wife was also a beneficiary of Parus Holding, Avalon consulting, Smart advising FZ, UAE 21 Businessmen.
Censor.NET's sources say that Stolar is doing fine now - he lives in the mode of "5 days in the UAE, a couple of days to solve problems in Ukraine". Most of his legal money has been transferred there.
According to the publication, over the past three years, Stolar has been at work only 192 days. Unfortunately, the Verkhovna Rada apparatus refused to provide official confirmation of this.
From 24 February 2022 to 12 January 2023, the Rada system recorded him as absent.
All this time, as Mykhailo Tkach found out in a story about the Monaco battalion, Stolar had been renting a mansion in Nice. And he appeared in the Rada when rumors started circulating about the consideration of the issue of his unseat. That's when they started talking about the deputy's conflict with the President's Office. However, despite the fact that the OPFL congress deprived Stolar of his mandate in the spring of 2022, the parliament never voted on this issue.
And they no longer mention the deterioration of relations with the authorities.
The money is withdrawn to the UAE, and a business is built there. Medvedchuk's assets are turned into Stolar's assets instead of being confiscated and sold at auctions to the state budget.
However, everyone has their own eRestoration program.
Tetiana Nikolaienko, Censor.NET
