The war does not change dishonest people either in the center or locally, but it makes them even more cynical.
A year will soon pass since the head of the Dnepropetrovsk regional military administration, Valentin Reznichenko, found himself at the center of a corruption scandal that cast a shadow over the immediate circle of the head of state.
Now at least four offices of the country - the president, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) and the Dnipropetrovsk region police - know about Reznichenko's lucrative relationship with fitness trainer Yana Khlanta and several bright points in their life. We are talking about a car, joint flights and 1.5 billion UAH, which the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration sent to the Stroyinvest Engineering company (managed by Khlanta) for road repairs.
But if the president immediately demonstratively fired the person involved in the NABU criminal case, Reznichenko, from the post of head of the front-line Dnepropetrovsk region, then Yuriy Golik, a constant consultant to the president’s office, who is associated with Stroyinvest Engineering LLC, has already managed to return to Bankovaya.
He, as always, drives there in his Mercedes Brabus or Toyota Sequoia, has his own office now opposite the deputy head of the presidential office Alexei Kuleba and considerable influence on the heads of regional military administrations, keeping his hand on the throat of the Dnepropetrovsk region. Which, by the way, recently again marked billions of contracts for road repairs with the new head of the Regional State Administration Sergei Lysak. Somehow it really smells like Odessa. No?
It is also interesting that in this story with many well-known and replaceable characters, some characters were completely lost during the year of investigation. For example, the former curator of “Big Construction” Kirill Timoshenko, whom Yuri Golik advised in the high position of deputy head of the president’s office. Our sources claim that there was a moment when the fates of these three government officials (two of whom are not even government employees and do not have to declare their wealth) could have intersected in the same pre-trial detention center. However, none of them were detained.
What in general is happening in the field of anti-corruption on the eve of the publication of a report on Ukraine’s fulfillment of the criteria for joining the EU? Why did the regional police intervene in the case that NABU was investigating? Why is NABU so slow in investigating the case? Have the losses caused to the state by Reznichenko and persons associated with him been determined? How long and influential could the list of defendants in this case turn out to be if NABU and SAPO manage to effectively resist pressure from the government offices?
To find answers to these questions, the publication’s journalists made inquiries to anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies, talked with sources in government offices, and also asked questions to representatives of a number of government bodies.
A short story about almost great luck
On November 2, 2022, the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Dnipropetrovsk region opened a criminal case against “officials of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration.” There were two articles in the criminal proceedings - about abuse of power and official position and about laundering proceeds from crime.
It would seem nothing surprising if not for one “but”. The case that the Dnieper police began to deal with concerned the head of the Dnepropetrovsk regional military administration, Valentin Reznichenko, and more than one and a half billion budget funds. And it was not under investigation by the National Police, but by NABU, which at that time was already conducting an investigation into this fact.
The case of careful development of roads in the Dnepropetrovsk region is known to everyone who read the news even a little in November last year. It began back in 2021, when the publication “Nashi Groshi” first published a story about the brilliant rise of Budinvest Engineering LLC, which deftly won one tender after another in the region and became one of the favorites of the State Highway Agency (Ukravtodor).
The journalists of “Our Money” turned out to be persistent and stubborn and continued to monitor the company’s activities. And exactly a year later, when the Armed Forces of Ukraine had already liberated the Kyiv region from the Russian army and a little more than a month remained before the news about the liberation of the occupied Kharkov region, the publication published a continuation of the story with Budinvest Engineering.
New data, which drew the attention of “Our Money,” indicated that in the period from May to July 2022, Stroyinvest Engineering LLC received UAH 1.2 billion from the Department of Housing and Communal Services (HPU) and Construction of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration. Some of the concluded contracts are not published on the Prozorro procurement website. It is also impossible to know which roads were repaired during martial law in the front-line region.
After this investigation, there were no transactions between the company and the State Treasury, but they resumed in mid-September last year. Until November 2, the media published two investigations in which they were talking about the same people: the head of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration Valentina Reznichenko and his probable girlfriend Yana Khlanta, who was the owner of the Stroyinvest Engineering company. The history of the owners of this LLC is also worth recalling.
The Budinvest Engineering company was founded in 2017 by Irina Vorobyova. By great coincidence, in the same year Valentin Reznichenko headed the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration for the first time. Reznichenko’s adviser was his longtime acquaintance Yuri Golik. And if eight years later Valentin Reznichenko remained the head of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration (with the beginning of the full-scale invasion, regional state administrations were transformed into regional military administrations by presidential decree), although already under the tenure of another president, having survived one dismissal, then the fate of his assistant turned out differently.
After the 2019 presidential elections, Yuri Golik became a consultant (he did not hold government positions and was not a civil servant) of the “Big Construction” presidential program. Before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, the program was implemented using budget funds and covered the reconstruction of roads, schools and kindergartens using billions of budget funds. What exactly Supreme Consultant Golik was doing became clear a little later.
Thimblerig
Apparently, in response to the investigation by Nashi Groshi journalists about tenders won by Budinvest Engineering LLC for road repairs in the Dnipropetrovsk region worth more than UAH 1.5 billion, NABU and SAPO opened criminal proceedings. The case had a preliminary qualification under Articles 364 (abuse of power and official position) and 209 (money laundering) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. But after some time, the National Police opens its illegal double.
Why did the police open a case when they knew: if 1.5 billion UAH appears in the story, this is definitely the scope of the NABU investigation, because the jurisdiction of the latter’s proceedings starts from 30 thousand dollars. Why did the case open on November 2, 2022, when the media published confirmation that that Valentin Reznichenko and Yana Khlanta communicate closely? Where were you hurrying to? And who advised to immediately conduct searches in the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration in order to seize the original documents, which they then wanted to destroy?
ZN.UA sent an information request to the police of the Dnipropetrovsk region with a request to explain why it happened that they were investigating a case that was not under their jurisdiction. And the National Police of Dnepr responded, dryly stating that in January 2023 the case was transferred to NABU. But they didn’t waste the gained time. From the editorial office’s own sources, it became known that the police of the Dnepropetrovsk region wanted to conduct a handwriting examination of the documents that the National Police seized from the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration and Stroyinvest Engineering LLC. These documents allegedly confirmed the connection between the head of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration, Valentin Reznichenko, and the Stroyinvest Engineering company. After the examination, law enforcement officers intended to destroy all original documents. However, this could not be done. Anti-corruption authorities saved the documents.
By the way, in September of this year, third-rank police general Anatoly Shchadilo, who at that time headed the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Dnepropetrovsk region, was transferred to Kyiv. Up for promotion.
There is an investigation, there are no suspicions
A year ago, the ex-head of the main detective division of NABU Andrei Kaluzhinsky, in an interview with ZN.UA regarding the production of a road history in the Dnepropetrovsk region, which was registered by SAPO, explained: “It’s one thing to prove by the standards of a conventional journalistic investigation, to formulate some ideas about those or other circumstances in society.
It’s quite another thing to go so far as to first report suspicion, and then the court pronounces the appropriate sentence.” Unfortunately, after Semyon Krivonos became the director of NABU, Andrei Kaluzhinsky no longer works there. As did a number of professional detectives who left the bureau. It is hardly possible now to say exactly how this fact will affect the investigation of the case of interest to us, however, we can already assume that such a rapid turnover of personnel in a key anti-corruption body is a bad signal.
And the investigation, according to sources, is indeed progressing slowly.
During the year, searches were carried out twice in the house of Yuri Golik: first in the town of “Konek” (at the same time detectives came with searches to the former head of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration Valentin Reznichenko). During the second search of Golik, NABU seized his phone. According to sources in the president's office, Yuri Golik's lawyers are trying to return the gadget. Bankova is also confident that Kirill Timoshenko, who was the curator of “Big Construction” before the full-scale invasion, does not appear in the proceedings at all. Although detectives are also checking his involvement in tenders in the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration.
As for the official position of the investigation, ZN.UA turned to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau with a question: is Tymoshenko really not in the proceedings now? And is there at least someone there who was in the media headlines for this story a year ago? NABU responded that while the investigation is ongoing, they cannot say anything. One thing is obvious in the response of the anti-corruption bureau - the investigation is ongoing, but suspicions are still far away.
However, from our own sources we managed to find out that several episodes are currently in production. Some of them concern road repairs in the Dnepropetrovsk region. In addition, anti-corruption authorities are investigating cases of illegal enrichment and false declarations by employees of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration. Also, NABU and SAP are inspecting at least 11 companies that were contractors of the Stroyinvest Engineering company. We are talking about checking the movement of companies' funds and how they are connected to each other. Some of these companies are also being checked to see if they are associated with employees of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration.
Expertise and audit, or hand washes hand
Perhaps the most important issue that NABU is working on, according to sources, is proof of losses. And while the bureau does not have its own expert institution to conduct these same examinations, which would significantly speed up progress in a large number of criminal proceedings, anti-corruption agencies have to “stand in line” in order to get the result of the examination they need. But if it was just a matter of waiting in line.
Firstly, as always, the result of the examination is influenced by the head of the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, Alexander Ruvin. Enough has been said and written about exactly how it affects.
Secondly, in this case there are other circumstances that interfere not even with the proof of losses itself, but with the stage that precedes it.
The point is the position of the State Audit Service of Ukraine. Be careful here. In order for NABU to conduct an examination of losses in the case, the bureau needs to conduct an audit of the costs of road repairs, for which the housing and communal services department of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration allocated money. This audit is carried out by the State Audit Service. It is this department that checks how effectively budget funds are spent. Agree, this is a completely necessary check.
And such an audit has begun. The audit procedure in NABU cases from the State Audit Service looks like this: during the pre-trial investigation, the expert, together with the investigation, works on the materials that he needs to analyze. In fact, a person from the audit service is directly familiar with the investigation materials. And when the audit in the case of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration and the Stroyinvest Engineering company was carried out, and the person from the State Audit Service who conducted it found losses and had to write a conclusion, strange things began to happen. The State Audit Service began to delay providing the investigation with the conclusion that NABU needed for further work and conducting an examination that was supposed to summarize the pre-trial investigation.
This information can be interpreted and evaluated in different ways. But there is a significant fact that cannot be ignored: legally, the State Audit Service is directly subordinate to the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, the head of which Sergei Marchenko is a sports partner and good friend of Yuri Golik.
That is, imagine the situation: law enforcement officers are investigating proceedings regarding possible illegal actions of Golik, and the audit, along with all the collected materials of the pre-trial investigation, necessary for further examinations, is being carried out in the department subordinate to his comrade. Isn't this a conflict of interest? And who can recuse themselves here?
However, the factor of a friend from the Ministry of Finance, who most likely plays the role of a button for higher-ranking people in this matter, is not all.
Institutional feature of “GosdorNII”
The history of the Dnepropetrovsk OVA and the Stroyinvest Engineering company revolves around whether the roads for which the Housing and Communal Services Department allocated funds were repaired at inflated prices. If so, then the company has caused damage to the state. But these losses, if any, must be proven. In Ukraine there is a state enterprise “State Road Research Institute named after M. Shulgin” (SE “GosdorNII”), which collects information on prices for building materials from all regions. That is, this is one large database of various construction products. The institute, by the way, is subordinate to Ukravtodor.
Journalists and experts who work with the GosdorNII database say that suppliers of various building materials can provide state-owned enterprises with prices with a certain increase. For example, if there is a company that sells cement for the construction or repair of roads, and this company is friends with one of the employees who work in the Regional State Administration and are responsible for holding tenders, then the information in GosdorNII is guaranteed to be distorted, that is, the price is inflated.
And if this price is published in the GosdorNII database, then it will be like a snowball effect, where a fictitiously inflated price will become the norm and then other suppliers will begin to take it as a basis. That is, corruption begins already at the stage of price formation, and not the so-called kickbacks. And if you agree with the supplier of the same cement, which may be the only one in the region, then you can inflate the price and it will be legal.
Stanislav Gvozdikov, Deputy Director for European Integration of the GosdorNII State Enterprise, to whom we also addressed questions, is sure that the statement about the inflated prices included in the GosdorNII databases is not true. According to him, this risk is neutralized by the pricing methodology for road work, which came into force on October 17 last year.
“This methodology reflects common purchasing and pricing practices around the world,” he explains. “The cost of materials is now separated from shipping costs. The use of the methodology allows the customer to control costs at all stages of the project, from planning to completion of work. Restoration agency services in the regions and, in some cases, regional state administrations, when ordering design and estimate documentation, are required to indicate, among other things, the source of information on the cost of materials and the delivery distance.”
And now, in the overwhelming majority of cases, says Gvozdikov, the source of information about the cost of materials is only the GosdorNII database, which is formed from many sources of information, not only from suppliers. This has brought the cost of materials closer to the level that has developed on the market today, which in turn contributes to a better understanding and control over the real cost of the project.
“Information on selling prices comes from suppliers of raw materials from quarries, namely in the form of their commercial offers, which separately contain information on the cost of delivery,” continues Stanislav Gvozdikov. “Also, our analysts from GosdorNII take historical data. For example, information from “Prozorro” on already paid completed contracts and from tender proposals of procurement participants. In addition, we have a database of existing quarries and we call them ourselves. All sources of information can be viewed in our price database. The supplier is only one source.
When we calculate the average price, we calculate it from at least 4-5 sources, for objectivity,” explains Stanislav Gvozdikov and assures that the corruption factor in inflating prices at the stages of forming the expected cost by the customer, concluding a contract and mutual settlements with contractors for work performed was completely eliminated last year thanks to the introduction of the technique.
Is it really? This is probably a reason for a separate investigation and material. But it turns out that the introduced methodology began to work after the housing and communal services department of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration transferred UAH 1.5 billion to the Stroyinvest Engineering company. And weren’t the prices from the Prozorro contracts already inflated according to this scheme?
So is there any prospect for the business?
The pace of the investigation of the case does not coincide with the public’s impatient expectations for suspicion of its probable defendants. Expectations are high because the story hits the eye and dazzles with the simplicity of its arrogance. Of course, none of the owners of the surnames in the big news headlines are to blame until the court makes a verdict. But we tried to outline the horizon line on which, perhaps, the case would go to trial
Who will be stronger in this story – the law or the power “roof” – will be another signal of what is really happening in our anti-corruption bloc. And who should we thank for this?
