NABU announced suspicion against the former chairman of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration, Valentin Reznichenko. The investigation considers him involved in large-scale theft in road construction. So far he is the highest official in the status of a suspect in the “Dnepropetrovsk case”
NABU announced the exposure of a large-scale scheme of theft of budget funds in the road sector in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The damage caused is estimated at 286 million hryvnia. Along with the former head of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration, four more are suspects in the case: the deputy chairman of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration, the head of the department of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration, the head of the road department of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration, the head of a business entity. The names of the suspects are not listed on the NABU website, but it was Valentin Reznichenko who headed the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration in 2022, when the theft scheme was implemented.
2022 is already a period of martial law. During such a period, the law allows priority funding for the operational maintenance of highways; costs for current and major repairs are possible only as a last resort.
As the investigation established, “the suspects, in order to obtain the possibility of priority financing, as well as to avoid the need to develop project documentation, carry out its examination and carry out technical supervision, replaced in the relevant documents information about the need for routine and major repairs of roads with the need for their operational maintenance.”
Thus, road maintenance costs were unreasonably increased to 1.5 billion hryvnia. The funds were allocated by the Department of Housing, Communal Services and Construction of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration. For this amount, contracts were concluded for work with the company Budinvest Engineering - 49% of the authorized capital in it then belonged to Valentin Reznichenko’s close friend, fitness trainer Yana Khlanta. Budinvest Engineering inflated the cost of materials by more than UAH 286 million. Part of these funds, according to the investigation, was withdrawn to the accounts of other companies also associated with the ex-chairman of the Regional State Administration and his deputy.
Valentin Reznichenko headed the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration from December 2020 to the beginning of 2023, when President Vladimir Zelensky fired him by decree. Then nothing was officially said about the reasons for the dismissal, but it was already known about the criminal case opened in November 2022 by the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office on the budget of 1.5 billion hryvnia and the “development” of these funds by the company of Reznichenko’s girlfriend.
According to the NABU criminal case, Reznichenko is a senior official involved in the theft of funds during road work in the Dnipropetrovsk region. But there are more influential characters in the scandal that has been ongoing since 2022.
On the same day as Reznichenko, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Kirill Tymoshenko resigned. Without his active participation as an official responsible for regional policy and the presidential vertical of power in the regions, Reznichenko’s appointment as head of the Regional State Administration could not take place. And it is extremely unlikely that Tymoshenko did not know what Reznichenko was doing - he simply could not help but know. But for him, the story of traffic scams in the Dnepropetrovsk region ended with his resignation from a high position in the OP. Not least thanks to the recent leak of NABU investigative materials on abuses at Big Construction.
The head of the Anti-Corruption Center, Vitaly Shabunin, said in one of his interviews that the flood of this information made it possible for other defendants in the “Dnepropetrovsk” case to prepare for investigative actions. Whether Kirill Timoshenko was such a person officially is difficult to say in the affirmative. But the NABU conducted a search of him at the end of June 2024 in connection with the rainstorm case - therefore, the investigation believes that Tymoshenko was at least interested in the leak and in what this leak would provide to possible suspects.
Unambiguously interested in leaking the NABU materials was Yuriy Golik, a long-time adviser to Valentin Reznichenko, a good friend of Yana Khlanta, a consultant for Big Construction and a person involved in the investigation into abuses at Big Construction. Despite his procedural status, Yuri Golik calmly visited the President’s Office back in 2023. And the company "Budinvest Engineering", despite the case initiated by NABU, continued to receive funds for road work - although not hundreds of millions, but much less. Yuriy did not wait for NABU searches - at the very beginning of June 2024, literally a few days before a possible search, he left Ukraine with a certificate of a disabled person and under the “Shlyakh” system.
The collective portrait of the top defendants in the case of abuses at the Big Construction must definitely be completed by someone very influential from the government. After all, the allocation of funds for roads is authorized by the relevant minister. And there was such a person. From March 2020 to November 2022, the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development was headed by Alexey Chernyshov. His path to the heights of power is a collection of corruption stories and criminal cases very closely related to him. But, when in November 2022, SAP registered proceedings on the possible misappropriation of public funds by the Budinvest Engineering company, Alexey changed his direction of activity - from the post of Minister of Regions he went to work in the gas industry, and got a job as chairman of the board of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine. He says that after the development of the regions, he felt a urge to strengthen Ukraine’s energy independence by increasing gas production and increasing the trust of international partners.
Yana Khlanta lost interest in business and road construction back in November 2022 - as soon as the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office opened proceedings for theft of funds, she resigned from the co-founders of Budinvest Engineering. And then I felt quite confident. Because when in June 2024 - at the same time as Kirill Tymoshenko - NABU came to search her, she not only did not worry, but even went on a counterattack. Together with her lawyer, Yana wrote a letter to the DBI, in which she demanded to initiate a criminal case against NABU detectives who allegedly violated her right to the inviolability of her home and caused property damage. Perhaps Yana’s athletic character had an impact - she is a master of sports and has been involved in powerlifting for many years. But it is more likely that the leak of investigative materials helped to feel confident here too. Now Yana can safely work as a fitness trainer as before.
