The Department of Housing and Communal Services and the Fuel and Energy Complex of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration entered into direct contracts for the supply of wood for fortifications with firms with signs of fictitiousness. A total of UAH 270 million was paid to the five companies.
According to Censor.NET, Martyna Bohuslavets, head of the Anti-Corruption Centre "Mezha", wrote about this in her column for UP.
It analysed direct contracts concluded without tenders between the Kharkiv RMA department and firms with signs of fictitiousness.
Shell companies received funds for construction of fortifications
"Hundreds of millions of hryvnias could have been stolen during the construction of fortifications in the Kharkiv region, where the 'rusnia' is now actively advancing. The Kharkiv Regional Military Administration transferred multi-million hryvnia contracts for the construction of fortifications, for which a total of 7 billion hryvnia was spent there, to shell companies using avatars.
In particular, the Department of Housing and Communal Services and the Fuel and Energy Complex of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration signed direct contracts for the supply of wood for fortifications with firms with signs of fictitiousness," she said.
KRMA chose newly registered non-name companies and individual entrepreneurs Thus, contracts for UAH 270 million worth of timber, the information on which is classified, were signed with I.O. Chaus, Hertz Industry LLC, Satisbud LLC, ATT BUD LLC and Voskhod Woodworking Enterprise LLC.
Bohuslavets notes that all of them started earning millions within a few months of registration. Classically, they worked under direct contracts and without competitive procurement.
"It just so happened that the Kharkiv Defence Procurement Office selected newly registered non-name firms and individual entrepreneurs for defence procurement. Moreover, the owners of these firms do not resemble successful businessmen and women - they have dozens of court cases, from whiskey theft to domestic violence against their husbands and mothers, some of them have been deprived of parental rights and had enforcement proceedings for loans from banks," says the head of the Anti-Corruption Centre "Mezha".
In other words, the RMA concludes "direct contracts for timber for fortifications with firms whose 'owners' do not even know that they are earning millions".
"Secret" avatars of the Kharkiv RMA
Bohuslavets notes that the scheme started with Ihor Chaus, a private entrepreneur. Three months after his registration, the RMA Department entered into direct contracts with him for the supply of timber worth millions of hryvnias.
We continued the scheme for "successful businesswomen". Both are from the city of Kamianske, Dnipropetrovsk region.
They have earned more than UAH 100 million from the Kharkiv RMA. These are Victoria Smoliak, owner of Hertz Industry LLC, and Natalia Koval from Satisbud LLC.
Hertz Industry LLC was registered in June 2023, and within a few months Smoliak began earning millions from timber. Again, under direct contracts. In less than a year, the company has changed four managers, which is also a sign of fictitiousness, explains the head of the Anti-Corruption Centre "Mezha".
More than 52 million are channelled through Satisbud LLC.
Both companies have the same director, Dmitry Knorozov. From November 2023 to January 2024, the KRMA department awarded Hertz 20 timber contracts worth more than UAH 57 million.
Other LLCs that received millions of funds
The Housing and Utilities Department of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration is siphoning off millions through ATT BUD and Voskhod Woodworking Enterprise, and their owners and managers are involved in more than 30 other newly created companies, Bohuslavets notes.
"This scheme shows with the naked eye how someone, being an official, mercilessly registers new companies, using people who may not be aware of this due to circumstances. And this someone continues to make money on blood. Ideally, this would be useful information for law enforcement agencies and further exposure of fictitious companies that steal millions from the Armed Forces. After all, most of these dozens of firms are now dormant and are likely to "ripen" for further participation in schemes to move funds into the shadows and tax evasion," Bohuslavets summarises in his column for UP.
Fortifications in the Kharkiv region
Earlier, the head of the city's military administration, Tamaz Gambarashvili, said that the fortifications in Vovchansk had been built, but due to constant Russian shelling, it was "not easy" to erect them. Everything was built, but perhaps "not so tightly".
Earlier, Denys Yaroslavskyi, commander of the Army Intelligence Unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said that there were supposed to be concrete fortifications minus 3 floors on the Ukrainian border in Kharkiv region, but there were not even mines.
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