Why MoD supplier is complaining about pressure from SBI and whether it is really overcharging
On Sunday, businessman Oleksandr Sokolovskyi said that the State Bureau of Investigation is conducting an investigation into his companies, which supply textiles to the Defense Ministry, over allegations of overpricing and transferring funds abroad. According to the businessman, this is how he is being pressured to pay bribes to certain entities.
But what is really happening with the tenders for the supply of textiles to the army, and whose interests Sokolovskyi might have disrupted? Let's try to figure it out in the Censor.NET article.
Thus, according to a fragment of a court ruling from the State Register of Court Decisions, which Sokolovskyi himself published, the First Investigative Department of the Territorial Office of the State Bureau of Investigation in Kyiv is conducting a pre-trial investigation in criminal case No. 62025100110000015, initiated on January 15, 2025, on the grounds of a criminal offense under Part 5 of Article 426-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. During the pre-trial investigation, it was established that military officials of the SE "DOT" of the Ministry of Defense and military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine exceeded their authority and official powers and entered into an illegal conspiracy with O.B. Sokolovskyi, the controller of domestic business entities LLC "Textile-Contact" and LLC "TK-Domashnii Textile"( "TC-Home Textile"). As a result, they set up an illicit scheme aimed at personal unlawful enrichment through the procurement of low-quality textile products at inflated prices, causing damage to the state during a period of martial law.
- Thus, military officials of the SE "DOT" of the Ministry of Defense and military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine organize state procurement of textile products in favor of LLC "Textile-Contact" and LLC "TK-Domashnii Textile", which are controlled by O.B. Sokolovskyi, by informing him in advance about the tenders and providing details on future tender requirements. This ensures the victory of these business entities in public procurement, followed by the supply of textile products to military unit locations (warehouses) at inflated prices and of inadequate quality. From 2022 to 2024, as a result of state procurement, LLC "Textile-Contact" and LLC "TK-Domashnii Textile" received over UAH 1.3 billion from the MoD's SE "DOT" under defense contracts. To launder the budget funds transferred from the MoD to LLC "Textile-Contact" and LLC "TK-Domashnii Textile" by moving them into the shadow economy and further distributing them among the participants of the illegal scheme, O.B. Sokolovskyi and other as-yet unidentified accomplices established a transit-conversion scheme. This scheme involved multiple resident and non-resident enterprises, their officials and trusted representatives, and was designed to facilitate sham transactions for the purchase and sale of goods, as well as the import of raw materials allegedly intended for textile production.
... In fact, this is the entire list of claims contained in the court ruling. At least at this stage, it is impossible to judge any evidence of money laundering schemes from the list provided in the ruling. However, it is possible to analyse what Sokolovskyi receives in tenders of the Ministry of Defence, including the last one of the year, from the State Operator For Non-Lethal Acquisition (DOT). Especially if it is tracked systematically. Let's start with the information from Opendatabot that last year, Textile Contact received orders for almost UAH 695 million at tenders. In 2025, in 3 months, this amount has already reached 548 million. According to the same resource, Sokolovskyi's Textile Contact contracted with the State Operator For Non-Lethal Acquisition for 640 million hryvnias. For comparison, Oleh Mitrokhin's MIK (another major army supplier) contracted with the DOT for 2.8 billion. And a year ago, the arrested Hrynkevych failed to deliver only 1.5 billion worth of underpants and jackets. The company NIKA-TEXT PLUS, which for a long time was contracted by Sokolovskyi, now has won tenders worth 1.3 billion.
Now let's take a closer look. Over the past year, DOT has announced four procurements of polo shirts. Textile-Contact participated in five tenders (one procurement may include several lots) but won only one. In January, the company was awarded a contract for 125,000 polo shirts worth UAH 60.6 million, with a unit price of UAH 404.15. At the same time, the Roza Knitwear Factory, which was awarded a contract in the same period, will produce 75,000 T-shirts at UAH 399.95 each, while Ekstrim-Teks will produce 100,000 polo shirts at UAH 401.85 each. The tender awarded to Textile-Contact is also subject to an inspection by the State Audit Service of Ukraine, as DOT had previously rejected the bid from Pryluky Textile Factory, which was UAH 0.8 million cheaper. Textile-Contact will receive a significantly larger amount under the contract for the supply of the Special Summer Suit. Sokolovskyi’s company was awarded a contract worth UAH 196,080,000 million. Under this contract, the company must produce 43,000 suits at UAH 3,799.5 per unit. At the same time, in the same period, DOT awarded contracts to: EKSTRIM-TEKS, which will produce 25,000 suits at UAH 4,194.00 per unit, AnVa LLC, which will supply 37,000 sets at UAH 3,794.50 per unit, (total contract value of UAH 168,498,000). For comparison, last year, suits were produced at the following prices: Astra Lux – UAH 4,189.80 per unit, MIK – UAH 4,194.96 per unit. This indicates that Sokolovskyi’s prices are not the highest. If we look at the procurement of the Summer Field Suit, then in February 2024, Textile-Contact was awarded a contract to produce 70,000 units, with a total value of over UAH 130 million. The unit price in Sokolovskyi’s company was UAH 1,882.50. For comparison: "Olteks" was awarded a contract for a similar order at UAH 1,885.20 per unit, resulting in a UAH 210,000 difference in total. Mitrokhin’s MIK agreed to produce the same number of suits in March at UAH 1,893.00 per unit, which is UAH 10.5 more per suit. Nika Text, Astra Lux, and Ekstrim-Teks were contracted at over UAH 2,000 per unit, but for smaller volumes. For further comparison, let's examine tenders for the supply of the "Winter Wind- and Moisture-Proof Jacket, Type 1, Category 1". At the end of December 2024, the State Operator For Non-Lethal Acquisition had to cancel a nearly UAH 300 million tender for the purchase of this jacket due to a lack of bidders.
In January, the Pryluky Garment Factory undertook to produce 40,000 of these jackets at UAH 2,471.75 per unit (total contract amount: UAH 118,644,000), while TUSMO LLC was ready to manufacture 40,000 jackets at UAH 2,474.5 and 2,462.50 per unit, aiming to receive over UAH 118 million. Meanwhile, Textile-Contact will receive a contract worth UAH 44 million, under which it must produce 15,000 jackets at UAH 2,464 per unit. Thus, once again, Sokolovskyi's bid is neither the most expensive nor the largest contract awarded. If we examine the tenders for a much more in-demand type of jacket (Winter Wind- and Moisture-Proof Jacket, Type 2, Category 1), Textile-Contact initially agreed in April of the previous year to supply it at UAH 2,932.20 per unit, while Olteks supplied it at UAH 3,234.00, and MIK at UAH 3,169.92. Only AnVa produced the jacket at a lower price of UAH 2,766.00, and later, Olteks was awarded a contract at UAH 2,697.90. Textile-Contact itself subsequently reduced its price to UAH 2,790.00 in later tenders. However, this was due to the fact that Farminko Nord entered the tenders and won contracts to produce 75,000 jackets at a significantly lower price of approximately UAH 2,200 per unit (with the total contract value of the three tenders amounting to around UAH 160 million), outsourcing production to Vietnam. As a result, the company delayed contract fulfillment for six months. Farminko eventually delivered these jackets around New Year's Eve, sparking a scandal over their failure to meet the Ministry of Defence’s technical specifications. Nevertheless, the jackets were exceptionally cheap. In the summer of 2024, it was Sokolovskyi who first raised concerns about Farminko’s supply disruptions with Defence Minister Umerov (albeit without explicitly naming the company). At that time, Sokolovskyi questioned the minister about how he viewed the participation of companies without their own production facilities, which import goods from abroad—especially given past cases where such goods failed to meet technical specifications. "And if we encounter these problems in the autumn, it will be difficult to resolve them before the end of the year. If they fail and do not deliver..." Sokolovskyi pressed the minister regarding the situation with the winter jackets. The minister’s response to this question was particularly noteworthy. "Firstly, I always support domestic production. But that does not mean that all these small domestic entities… should act the way they used to—when they would approach MPs or other officials to exert influence," Umerov replied. "I inherited a system where people would come to me, saying: ‘If not this way, then that way.’ I accepted the challenge. Then let’s put it this way—everyone has plan until they get punched in jaw." Although no specific company was named in this exchange, a select group of insiders clearly understood the message. On one hand, the minister was being disingenuous in claiming he was unaware of the issue or which company was responsible for the supply disruptions. On the other hand, he was directly hinting to Sokolovskyi that he disapproved of how certain Ukrainian companies were handling the situation.
Indeed, Sokolovskyi is not particularly well-liked in the Ministry of Defence and the Logistics Forces Command. Within these institutions, the businessman is regarded as a key coordinator of Ukrainian textile suppliers for the army, wielding significant influence over the market and interfering with the business interests of other stakeholder groups. For instance, Sokolovskyi was highly vocal in criticizing the procurement of jackets under Reznikov, which were supplied from Turkey by a company linked to the family of MP Kasai. Similarly, he actively opposed the SASU over its attempts to impose sanctions on Ukrainian businesses under Resolution 335, which failed to include the term "profit." At the outset of the DOT operations, relations between the new agency and Sokolovskyi were highly strained, as the agency was actively seeking new contractors to drive down procurement prices. Whether the associated risks of poor quality and delayed deliveries were properly considered is another matter. It appears that the only instance where Sokolovskyi’s company's prices significantly diverged from those of other market participants concerns the Type 2 insulated suit jacket. In early July 2024, DOT awarded a contract for this product to Alfa Security at UAH 732 per unit. Meanwhile, in December, Olteks supplied the same item at UAH 1,251, and Textile-Contact at nearly UAH 1,255. However, despite a contractual delivery deadline of 3 December 2027, Alfa Security has failed to deliver more than 60,000 jackets to the Ministry of Defence.
Therefore, if there is a problem in this story, it is whether we are not seeing a situation where when the DOT is chasing price reductions, it is directly threatening the quality and timeliness of supply.
Secondly, DOT does engage in consultations with companies, and this is often evident in bidding processes, particularly in cases where, instead of the usual 14 competing companies, only one participates—and often not a key market player.
Whether Sokolovskyi will face serious issues with the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) remains an open question. At least at the mid-level, there appear to be no significant complaints regarding his activities.
However, things in Ukraine can unfold differently. Therefore, this situation should remain under close monitoring.
Tetiana Nikolaienko, Censor. NET
