How online corruption works in Ukraine: a freelance adviser and his relatives received more than UAH 70 million from the Ministry of Culture

The case of Artem Bidenko well illustrates the possibilities and influence that informal advisers or consultants to government agencies can have. It also becomes clear that sometimes important decisions are made by completely different people who sit in bureaucratic chairs.

After the release of an investigation into excessive spending on the new English-language digital platform The Gaze, a public comment appeared from the State Enterprise “Multimedia Platform for Foreign Broadcasting of Ukraine” (MPIP), which is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture. An extensive response to this investigation was also published by the well-known Ukrainian advertiser Artem Bidenko, who calls himself a freelance adviser to MPIU. Investigators from NGL.media deliberately did not immediately comment on the obviously manipulative claims of the IPP, deciding instead to devote time to a deeper analysis of the activities of this state-owned enterprise - and discovered something very unexpected.

It turns out that a significant portion of contracts from enterprises of the Ministry of Culture are received by companies and entrepreneurs connected by family or friendly ties with the same Artem Bidenko. In less than three years, these companies received UAH 70.5 million from the ministry, including almost UAH 51 million directly from small pension funds.

The case of Artem Bidenko well illustrates the possibilities and influence that informal advisers or consultants to government agencies can have. It also becomes clear that sometimes important decisions are made by completely different people who sit in bureaucratic chairs.

“I know a lot of people, and they sometimes win tenders”

The fact that the former Secretary of State of the Ministry of Culture is an adviser to the MPIU first became known from his blog dedicated to justifying the costs of the The Gaze platform. Later, Artem Bidenko gave a detailed interview to Babel, where he talked about the launch of The Gaze and named several other people associated with the project.

NGL.media decided to check the new information from Bidenko and at the same time respond to the reproaches of MPIU. Therefore, we began to investigate the purchases of MPIU and other enterprises of the Ministry of Culture and almost immediately discovered traces of Artem Bidenko.

WHO IS ARTEM BIDENKO

42-year-old Artem Bidenko is well known in advertising and political circles in Kyiv. In 2006, he founded his first advertising agency, Ruby Consulting LLC, and soon two more - Region Media LLC and Cosmos Media Group LLC. In 2014, Bidenko headed the advertising department of the Kyiv City State Administration, and the following year he became deputy to the then Minister of Information Policy Yuri Stets. Already in 2017, he took the position of Secretary of State of this ministry, where he remained until mid-2020. It is believed that it was Artem Bidenko who initiated the creation of the state brand Ukraine NOW.

In total, Bidenko spent more than five years in the government - first in the Ministry of Information Policy, and later in the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. But companies associated with him began winning Ministry of Culture tenders after his dismissal - in 2021. They continue to receive government orders even now - when Bidenko informally and free of charge advises MPIU.

In a conversation with NGL.media journalists, Artem Bidenko explained that he became a consultant to The Gaze project at the request of the director of the MPIU, Yulia Ostrovskaya, with whom he had previously worked at the ministry.

“I talked over coffee last year with Yulia Ostrovskaya, just exchanging information. She says: there is an idea, it would be cool for someone to take on the role of coordinating and organizing processes. I said that I would look at it and give advice, and you will already do it. This is roughly how it was,” says Artem Bidenko, “This is not a permanent job, I don’t work as an advisor, I don’t get paid for it, I don’t spend a lot of my time on it, that is, at best, it’s an hour or two a week... I I am a certain bridge between other authorities and The Gaze in terms of investing certain narratives.”

The State Enterprise “Multimedia Platform for Foreign Broadcasting of Ukraine” confirmed to NGL.media that Bidenko does not receive payment for his consultations because he does not work on the staff of the enterprise.

One could assume that Artem Bidenko really helps develop Ukrainian foreign broadcasting out of pure altruism, if not for one thing - the companies of his relatives and friends receive a significant portion of state contracts. According to NGL.media, in less than three years, these companies received more than UAH 70.5 million from the Ministry of Culture, including almost UAH 51 million from the small private pension fund, which he advises.

For example, the Light Communications company, where the founder is Bidenko’s father-in-law, 68-year-old Vitaly Shapovalenko, has signed agreements with enterprises of the Ministry of Culture for UAH 47.7 million over the past two years. The first order of Light Communication was a multi-part documentary film for the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Independence Day in 2021. At that time, Bidenko no longer worked in the ministry.

The story of the filming of this series turned out to be quite vague. Analysts from Dozorro two years ago tried to find out what exactly the state paid 9.8 million UAH for, and where, in the end, this series can be watched. However, then Dozorro journalists did not receive substantive answers from the Ministry of Culture, just as NGL.media journalists have not received them now.

Videos from Light Communication can be viewed on the production’s YouTube channel. These are 26 episodes lasting 1.5-2.5 minutes each about different regions for Independence Day. Some videos feature famous Ukrainians - for example, writer Sergei Zhadan, musician Valery Kharchyshyn and others. However, each of these videos has an average of one hundred views.

In addition to the videos, Light Communication also shot a 28-minute documentary film, but it cannot be found in the public domain - and the film is not even on the Light Communication corporate YouTube channel. However, NGL.media received a copy of this film from the Ministry of Culture in response to an official request - thus we were able to make sure that the film at least still exists.

But let’s return to the co-owner of Light Communication - Artem Bidenko’s father-in-law. Until 2019, 68-year-old Vitaly Shapovalenko had no experience at all in television or cinema. He was involved in the design and maintenance of residential apartment buildings, worked as Deputy Minister for Housing and Communal Services in the government of Mykola Azarov and was a consultant to the German agency for development and energy efficiency GIZ. And even now Shapovalenko has not left his main field of activity and works as a project manager in the engineering company iC consulenten Ukraine.

But lack of experience did not prevent Vitaly Shapovalenko and his business partner Evgeniy Vysokovsky from conducting large-scale advertising campaigns and filming videos in recent years, first for the state-owned Oschadbank, then for the Kyiv City State Administration, where his son-in-law also worked at one time, and for the Ministry of Youth and Sports . And since August 2021, Light Communication receives orders exclusively from MPIU, a state-owned enterprise advised by Artem Bidenko.

In July 2023, Light Communication moved to a new level. The company received an order from MPIU for three series at once - two documentaries “Homo amans” and “Content of a sensitive nature” and one feature “One and a half percent”. Light Communication should produce all three series by the end of 2023. MPIU selected these projects in an art competition. By the way, the very principle of distributing money through art competitions of small private investment funds is often criticized by experts for lack of transparency.

“Indeed, this will be our first experience in producing a feature series. But we involved a very experienced team of specialists in the preparation and production of this series. Preparations for filming are now underway,” Evgeniy Vysokovsky from Light Communication told NGL.media.

NGL.media turned to Vitaly Shapovalenko to find out how he manages to combine such different areas of activity, and whether his son-in-law Artem Bidenko encouraged him to work in the creative field. However, upon hearing the question, Shapovalenko flatly refused to communicate.

But Artem Bidenko told NGL.media that he does not see a problem in the fact that his father-in-law has various hobbies and is engaged in filming advertisements and TV series for the Ministry of Culture.

“As a co-owner, he does not manage the production himself, this is his own business, stories in which I do not interfere... You need to understand that the market is small, everyone knows each other, everyone communicates with each other at different stages, areas, I know very much many people and from time to time these people win tenders, from time to time these people may intersect with my relatives. This doesn’t mean that I can call Tkachenko (ex-Minister of Culture) or someone else who makes the decision and say: please let this company win,” explains Artem Bidenko.

However, the second co-owner of Light Communication, Evgeniy Vysokovsky, is also no stranger to Bidenko. At one time, he had a joint business with his wife Elina Vysokovskaya - the Prana advertising agency. This business still exists, but Bidenko left the founders, leaving Elina Vysokovskaya and his friend Andrei Rudenko as the owners.

Mom, I'm wearing a helmet

During an almost hour-long conversation with an NGL.media journalist, Artem Bidenko emphasized several times that he was engaged in various types of activities and simply would not physically have time to control the purchase of microfinance funds. He really does a lot of things - for example, in addition to the advertising business and work in the government, in 2021 Bidenko, as an individual entrepreneur, was engaged in accommodating guests of the founding summit of the Crimean Platform in hotels.

But journalists were interested in one special type of Bidenko’s activity. The fact is that he is a co-founder of the public organization “Institute of Information Security,” which develops information campaigns, promotion projects and marketing. One of the activities of this organization is neuromarketing research.

During such studies, special EEG helmets are used that read the recipient’s brain reaction to a specific product (logo, advertising, website, etc.). Helmets are also used in sociology, however, the Ukrainian market is quite narrow and is represented by only a few companies. The full cycle of such a study using an EEG scanner and analysis of the obtained data before a full-scale war costs about $4,000, but the cost can be higher - it all depends on the number of recipients, representatives of companies that do such studies told NGL.media.

The direction of neuromarketing research at the Institute of Information Security is headed by Andrey Rudenko, Bidenko’s close friend and business partner. Until 2018, he was a co-owner of Computer Information Technologies LLC (KIT), which received two contracts from MPIU for the development of The Gaze platform. One of these contracts also concerned research using an EEG helmet.

On December 29, 2022, MPIU signed an agreement with KIT for UAH 12.56 million, but a few hours later the cost of the transaction was reduced by UAH 2.5 million. On the same day, the contractor announced the completion of the project. And the very next day, December 30, KIT received a little more than 10 million UAH.

Alexander Efremov, head of KIT, explains such instant execution of the order by the fact that the company began developing The Gaze platform even before the tender, “at its own peril and risk.”

“We quite often start work after we understand that we are alone in the competition and with a high probability the contract will be awarded to us. There are situations when the contract is not invested, but we are forced to accept this risk. Otherwise, some projects may not start or be implemented,” Efremov explained in a conversation with NGL.media.

As for the use of an EEG helmet in this project, this requirement was personally promoted by Artem Bidenko, who believes that such studies work better than classic focus groups. However, due to a lack of funding, the requirement to conduct neuromarketing research was removed from the contract, reducing the cost of work from UAH 12.5 million to UAH 10 million.

“Yes, it was my initiative, I recommend and recommended that authorities, enterprises, and advertising agencies adopt these studies. But in the case of KIT, these studies were no longer included in the final agreement,” Bidenko explained.

However, Alexander Efremov from KIT claims that his company still conducted neuromarketing research, but did not receive money for it.

“Initially, the customer planned to promote the portal using the results of neuroresearch, but did not allocate funds for this, and an additional agreement was concluded to reduce the volume and cost of work. Therefore, neuroresearch related to the promotion was not paid for,” Efremov said.

One of these EEG helmets, the Emotiv Epoc X model (the same one KIT used for The Gaze) belongs to Artem Bidenko himself, and according to him, he periodically rents it out. One of Bidenko’s clients turned out to be Roman Peresunko, an entrepreneur who in July of this year received a contract for UAH 2.2 million from the self-employed pension fund to promote The Gaze in the UK. The documents that Peresunko submitted to the tender indicate that he rented the helmet for five months from Bidenko.

“The contractor conducts research on the natural reactions of the corresponding parts of the brain of controlled groups of audiences (10-15 people) using an EGG helmet to certain parts of marketing creatives in order to improve the effectiveness of advertising materials. Based on the results of the study, a report is provided with recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of marketing materials,” as stated in the agreement with Peresunko.

Obviously, Roman Peresunko had to deliver the EEG scanner to the target audience in the UK to conduct neuroresearch there. In October, Peresunko had already received full payment for the work performed, so we asked him about the results of surveys in the UK. Unfortunately, neither Peresunko nor Bidenko could confirm the conduct of these studies.

“It is possible that he had some foreigners in the subcontract, because we were interested in foreigners. That is, he found someone here, but someone could have done his research there too,” suggests Bidenko.

He also could not remember how often he collaborated with Roman Peresunko and whether he lent him his EEG helmet for other projects, explaining that as a sole proprietor he has many types of activities, so he does not remember everything.

“I don’t rent scanners as my main activity. I have a lot of different things. Secretly, I even rent out the premises and pay all taxes,” Bidenko boasted in a conversation with NGL.media. In open sources we actually found a link to a house in the Carpathians, which Bidenko became the owner of last year. Sheshory Chalet is rented for 5000 UAH per day.

NGL.media journalists talked with the owners of two Ukrainian companies engaged in neuromarketing research using EEG scanners. None of them had heard of Roman Peresunko or Artem Bidenko. According to them, the helmet that Bidenko has provides minimal information, and to get more complete information, they use more complex scanners. In addition, in order to qualitatively analyze data from such a scanner, you need to have certain knowledge and qualifications: just having a helmet is not enough for this.

“This is a high-tech product, a high-tech service that requires appropriate specialty, knowledge and skills. For example, we only partially use automated data interpretation. Because a specialist can analyze them more deeply. Some studies suggest that automating such complex results, which are based on brain activity and other behavioral markers, reduces the accuracy of interpretation by half. It’s the same as buying a flagship laptop, but using it like a typewriter,” Viktor Komarenko, co-owner of the Beehiveor neuromarketing research center, explained to NGL.media.

Roman Peresunko has experience in marketing, but whether he has the appropriate qualifications to conduct neuromarketing research is unknown. From open sources it is known about Peresunko that he previously directed the reality show “Hata on Tata” on the STB channel and, together with his relatives, owns the “Media Hub” company, engaged in marketing and PR.

The story with the use of the EEG helmet is not the only controversial issue in the cooperation of MPIU with Roman Peresunko. According to the head of the NGO Center for Public Monitoring and Research, Miroslav Simka, the tender in which Peresunko won had many violations and should have been canceled altogether. But MPIU didn’t do this, and now it’s too late, because Peresunko has already received his money

“This participant did not provide all the certificates and did not confirm all the information requested by the customer. But the customer also issued demands in violation of the law: he demanded unnecessary certificates. Therefore, the customer would have to cancel the purchase altogether,” explained Miroslav Simka.

Therefore, it looks like not all the advice that Artem Bidenko gives to the state-owned enterprise of the Ministry of Culture has a useful result for the ministry itself. The real result in the form of good income is received by the relatives and friends of Bidenko, who, although unofficially, still works quite closely with the Ministry of Culture. The status of an unofficial adviser gives him serious leverage in the IPF and, in particular, in the The Gaze project - and without any responsibility, because he does not officially work for the state.