There are many ways to “cheat” the state and state-owned enterprises with big money, but the protection of state-owned banks is somehow weakly associated with such opportunities.
And as it turned out, it was in vain, because you can earn hundreds of millions of hryvnia on this without any competition and, for the time being, questions from regulatory structures.
How much does PrivatBank pay for the services of security companies?
The first paragraph of Government Resolution No. 975 of November 21, 2018 provides for the mandatory protection of facilities by police security agencies of strategic importance for the economy and security of the state. JSC CB "Privatbank", being an object of strategic importance for the economy of Ukraine, violates this norm, since for many years the security service of this financial institution has been purchasing security services from private structures and does not change the supplier.
A scandal involving the security of branches of the state-owned Privatbank broke out back in 2020, when RBC-Ukraine reported the results of an internal audit of the state bank. It turned out that the bank, which spends up to 400 million hryvnia a year on security, gives contracts without tenders to two companies, and even with a significant overpayment.
Thus, we were talking about the companies Yavir-2005 LLC and Venbest LLC. As can be seen from the part of the audit conclusion published by RBC, under only 7 contracts the companies received UAH 13.3 million, although according to the contract the amount should have been within UAH 10 million. At the same time, even the amounts specified in the contracts were considered too high, so the overpayment for the bank amounted to UAH 4.5 million. It also turned out that in 2016-2020, contracts for physical security were concluded at prices two to three times higher than the tariffs approved by the bank’s board and without any tenders.
The fact is that in December 2016, after the nationalization of PrivatBank, former Ukreximbank employee Sergei Bolotin was appointed to the position of head of the bank’s Security Service. And this is important because of his connection with the Venbest company. In fact, he transferred the bank's security sector to outside companies. In 2017, the former owners of the bank, “offended” by the nationalization, with the help of journalists from their media holding, published materials that even then claimed that Bolotin was monopolizing the security services of PrivatBank, transferring contracts specifically to the Venbest company. And let us immediately note that after the appointment of Sergei Bolotin to the position of head of the security service of Privatbank, for seven years, not a single successful tender was held for the purchase of physical and technical security services. Private contractors receive hundreds of millions in security for a state-owned bank of strategic importance without competitive tenders.
Back in 2017, there were serious problems with the security and safety of Privatbank, which was easy to understand from the tender for technical and physical security of facilities for UAH 171.3 million. Announced on May 22, it was officially canceled the very next day. The reason was a flood of complaints from market participants who directly accused the organizer of holding a tender for a specific winner. According to the tender documentation, bidders had to meet the following requirements:
- have the right to carry firearms;
— the age of security guards is from 21 years, although by law you can be hired from 18 years old;
— letters of recommendation from 5 large customers with a volume of 150 objects each, although usually such contracts are concluded for each object separately;
— the purchase was declared as pre-threshold, although the pre-threshold level of payment for services is no more than UAH 5 million.
And this is only part of the claims that poured out under the announcement of a tender in the Prozorro system. Privatbank took the criticism into account, canceled the tender and since then has not announced a single auction through the government procurement platform, concluding direct contracts with companies that were probably “needed” by the management of the banking institution.
Judging by the data of RBC-Ukraine, there are two of them, and behind each of them there are interesting people, and numerous facts of violation of the laws that they are designed to protect.
Security company "Venbest"
The Venbest group of security companies has been operating on the market since 1991 and includes the main company, Venbest LLC, 55 companies in which the central office owns a share, and 21 branches. According to the company’s website in Venbest, 2,500 operational employees and 566 mobile crews guard 85,205 objects in 20 regions of Ukraine.
In financial terms, the company looks very solid - income of UAH 530.2 million for 2023, which is less than it was in 2021 - UAH 566 million, but has already surpassed the indicators not only of 2022 but also of 2020 (456.7 and 442.8 million UAH, respectively).
But what is the Venbest group and who earns these hundreds of millions of hryvnias on the security market of Ukraine.
According to the analytical service YouControl, the owner of the LLC is the Cyprus offshore company Venbest Security Limited, whose founders are Vladimir Dzyuba and Georgy Tupchiy. Thus, in May 2015, the main company Venbest Security Limited was reregistered in Cyprus. According to Georgy Tupchiy, due to receiving significant investments. But an interesting fact is that the management of the founding companies JF NOMINEE SERVICES LIMITED and JF SECRETARIAL SERVICES LIMITED are associated with the Cypriot founding companies that are part of the group of Valery Pisarenko, one of those close to the deputy head of administration Viktor Yanukovych.
Vladimir Dzyuba is the man who stood at the origins of Venbest in 1991, and, according to information on the company’s website, it was he who contributed 5,000 rubles to the authorized capital of the company in 1991. To do this, he had to sell his camera and his wife's wedding dress. But despite the status of the founder and founder, Vladimir Dzyuba, a rather non-public person, will cede the reins of PR to his partner Georgy Tupchiy.
It is Georgy Tupchiy who gives interviews to business publications about the success story of the company he allegedly joined in 2003. Why "allegedly"? The same Venbesta website claims that Tupchiy began working in 1999 and created physical security and mobile teams to respond to messages sent to the alarm console. There would be nothing scandalous in this if, until 2003, Georgy Tupchiy had not worked in the State Security Service (SSO) under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, where he rose to the rank of deputy head of the SSO. It turned out that Tupchiy could help a private security structure for 4 years, using his official position,
On the Internet you can find information about the close relationship between Tupchiy and Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Viktor Ratushnyak, suspected of shooting people on the Maidan.
An interesting detail is that Venbest branches in occupied Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk have not yet been liquidated.
Finally, in the context of “Venbest” and the latter’s possible political “roof”, the name of the people’s deputy of Ukraine, and before the election, the owner of another group of security companies “Galid” Nikolai Galushka, is interesting.
As Hromadske stated in its investigation, the people's deputy still controls the company, having simply transferred it to his father, Leonid, and located his public reception room in it. Moreover, “Galid” cooperates with “Venbest”, and in the people’s deputy’s native Brovary, the offices of “Galid”, “Venbest” and the public reception of the politician are located in the same building.
“A wolf in sheep’s clothing” – Venbest LLC
Any security company always follows the law. But the brainchild of Vladimir Dzyuba and Georgy Tupchiy, Venbest LLC appears in a number of criminal proceedings, the most interesting of which are perhaps two. One of them, No. 42019101070000009, concerns security contracts for Privatbank without an auction and was opened back in 2020.
According to the materials of the case, which did not result in a verdict, the heads of the Privatbank security service “strongly recommended” Venbest, Yavor-2000 and Yavor-2005 to buy goods and services from companies associated with the management of the security service. Let us note that the amounts of such “kickbacks” are not impressive - for example, LLC “Security Service “Security.ua” received an order for 273 thousand hryvnia, LLC “Group of Security Companies” - 229 thousand, two more companies received 54 and 56 thousand hryvnia each .
It may seem that the security companies that received contracts from Privatbank themselves suffered from the arbitrariness of the bank’s Security Service, but it only seems so. After all, they did not contact law enforcement agencies about these violations. Simply put, Venbest simply had no chance of receiving a large order from a state bank honestly, without collusion.
Another fact of violation of the law is discussed in criminal proceedings No. 12019210010000875 dated April 15, 2019. According to him, Venbest LLC was accused of forging documents for participation in a tender for security of the premises of the Ternopil Regional Employment Center in the amount of 168 thousand hryvnia.
Deputy from the PR, death of a SBU soldier, tax evasion, surveillance of citizens using equipment from the Russian Federation - Yavor group of companies
The second major recipient of Privatbank security contracts without tenders is the Yavor group of companies, which includes the Yavor-2000 private enterprise, Yavor-2005 LLC and others, including about 30 branches in different cities. The main structure of this group is the Yavor-2000 private enterprise, registered 24 years ago.
Judging by the data from the same YouControl, the state of emergency is going through hard times - in 2021-2023, the company’s income fell exactly half, from 620 to 310 million UAH, while Yavor-2005 LLC earned only 12 million in the same period UAH less – UAH 449.3 million based on the results of last year.
But Yavor has a skill - “winning” tenders. Thus, in September 2017, the private enterprise “Yavor-2000” emerged as the winner in a tender for 24 million UAH for the implementation of the “Safe City” program in Poltava with the installation of 317 cameras on the city streets. It was only then that the media noticed that the cameras would be controlled using Russian Trassir software. That is, everything that these cameras see on the streets of Poltava could be found out in the Russian Federation. However, instead of revising the terms of the tender, by agreement of the parties, the cost of the services provided was increased. And Yavor-2000 still makes money from servicing this system.
In general, if you study the history of the victories of the Yavor-2000 private enterprise tenders, it turns out that most of them come from the Poltava region, and the largest orders - from 1 million UAH or more - come from the mayor's office of the regional center. Moreover, often these cannot be called tenders, since no one else participates in them except “Yavor-2000”.
An explanation for this situation may be the connections of the sole owner of the company, Evgeniy Likhozhon, at the local level. There is a version about Likhozhon’s strong friendship with the permanent mayor of Poltava from 2010 to 2023, Alexander Mamai. In addition, Likhozhon himself was a deputy of the City Council from the Party of Regions, although he left it in 2014. In the same year, the Yavor-2000 emergency vehicle was spotted during the murder of an SBU officer in Slavyansk.
However, surprisingly, even after the resignation of Alexander Mamai from the post of mayor of Poltava due to embezzlement of property, Evgeniy Likhozhon’s company receives large orders from KP in Poltava. But still, Evgeniy Likhozhon clearly lacks a “political roof” at the highest level, at least for a positive resolution of the issue with criminal proceedings No. 42022000000000882 dated April 14, 2023. It is symbolic that only two days passed from the resignation of Alexander Mamai to the opening of this case.
According to the case materials, a number of Evgeniy Likhozhon's companies - the same private enterprise "Yavor-2000", LLC "Yavor-2005" - bought agricultural products from LLC "Trading House "Agroterra". It would seem – why do security companies need agricultural products?
In fact, everything is quite simple - supposedly, by purchasing certain products, Evgeniy Likhozhon’s companies could simply write off money to pay for non-existent goods, thereby “reducing” their income and evading taxes. Thanks to such “fake” transactions, the “buyers” of Agroterra’s goods—a total of 18 companies, including Yavor—could save UAH 208 million in taxes.
At the same time, this is not the first time that the same state of emergency “Yavor-2000” is suspected of attempts to evade paying taxes. For example, previously a case was considered against the company regarding understatement of VAT in the amount of almost 13 million UAH. True, then everything ended well for “Yavor”. The case was considered by the Kyiv District Court of Poltava, and Alexander Mamai was still the mayor of the regional center.
With criminal proceedings No. 42022000000000882 it is more complicated - it is being considered by the Shevchenkovsky District Court of Kyiv, over which Evgeniy Likhozhon does not have leverage, or at least did not have it until 2024.
In April 2024, a year after the opening of criminal proceedings on tax evasion by the Yavor group companies, an article was published in Forbes about the joint work of Yavor and Venbest. Evgeniy Likhozhon and Georgiy Tupchiy, with joint photos and answers to questions, demonstrate that they work together, they have no problems, and also emphasize that Yavor-2000 alone paid half a billion hryvnia in taxes in 2022-2023 (which is strange, because the total income for 2 years amounted to only 616 million UAH).
All this looks very much like whitewashing one’s reputation and a statement of support for a larger player in the security services market, whose main “asset” is probably his acquaintance with People’s Deputy Nikolai Galushko. It is also possible that Georgy Tupchiy and Evgeny Likhozhon began to expand their presence in the market, not always acting legally.
