Is it “squeezing” land from the capital’s bulk and dumping sand? The head of the National Boxing Federation of Ukraine and businessman Vladimir Prodivus and his PJSC Mostobud were involved in illegal mining transactions.
Moreover, the controlling stake in PJSC Vinnytsia Department Store also ended up in the hands of the ex-regional owner thanks to a court decision and despite the fact that the statute of limitations had expired. StopCor analysts investigated how Vladimir Prodivus manages to win the courts so successfully and who helps him in this.
The name “Mostobud” in Kyiv has long been associated in people’s minds with corruption and abuse. On the Internet you can find a lot of open information about unauthorized sand mining by PJSC Mostobud and LLC Mostobud-Trans. Their activities were carried out in the industrial zone of Kyiv near Vydubychi, although, probably, the structures did not receive any official permission to use the subsoil. The head of the supervisory board of Mostobud PJSC de jure is Vladimir Prodivus, but, according to rumors, the sand business may actually be led by crime boss Yuri Erinyak (nicknamed Moldovan).
According to official sources, Vladimir Prodivus has a 21.6% stake in PJSC Mostobud.
Of course, the company could not give permission because bankruptcy proceedings were filed against it. And in terms of salary, the debt reached 12,885,237.7 UAH. 286 enforcement proceedings have been opened against Mostobud PJSC.
In 2019, the financial director of PJSC Mostostroy, Alexey Kozlovsky, was placed under suspicion, however, according to media reports, the case is being delayed due to the actions of employees of the Prosecutor General’s Office. And indeed, if you look at the register of court decisions, the last court ruling on Mostobud is dated 02/11/2022, which states that the pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings No. 420201000000337 dated 08/17/2020 should take place before February 17, 2023. And for more than a year now there has been no word or breath about the case.
But let's look at an interesting fact. It is Alexey Kozlovsky who is today the head and owner of Mostobud-Trans LLC.
So while one company is deeply in debt and, accordingly, bankruptcy proceedings have begun, the other is also successfully going into the red.
The StopCor team has already written about how in the capital Goloseevo people of the ex-regional Prodivus are extracting sand on land seized from the community. However, despite the decision of the Supreme Court to return the site to the ownership of the community, the company continues to mine and sell sand. After all, it is clearly visible how trucks are intensively working on the site on Promyshlennaya Street, 4, transshipping sand on a barge.
The work is carried out on an industrial scale.
How to successfully win cases?
But let’s return to the activities of Mostobud LLC. At one time, in 2006, the Kyiv City Council leased a plot of 16.8 hectares to the Mostobud joint-stock company for 50 years. This territory fell under the construction of a railway-road bridge crossing over the Dnieper River in Kyiv. However, despite the lack of consent from the City Council, in 2015 Mostobud subleased the site to the private enterprise Prombudservice 2005. By the way, one of the founders of this company is Victoria Prodivus with 50% of the shares.
After this, Prombudservice 2005 built an “industrial base” with an area of 155 square meters on the site and in March 2020 sold it to the newly created KPS-GROUP LLC.
So, already in July 2017, the Kyiv police opened criminal proceedings on the fact of illegal sand mining at the site on the street. Industrial. And already in 2019, the director of Mostobud-Trans LLC, a company that stored and sold illegally mined sand, received suspicion. And the Economic Court of Kyiv ordered the company to return the land plot to state ownership.
But that was not the case. The company filed an appeal to the Northern Economic Court of Appeal. And then, miraculously, the appellate court overturned the decision of the trial court. This case was led by Evgeniy Shaptala. He comes from a judicial family. His mother Natalya Shaptala was the head of the Constitutional Court. She is known for the fact that in 2010 she voted for the decision to restore the Constitution of Ukraine as amended in 1996 and repeal the amendments to the Constitution made in 2004 in violation of the Constitution itself. Then this made it possible to expand the powers of the then President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.
In addition, using the “Judicial Blood” database, Investigative.Info found that Yevgeny Shaptala’s wife Olga has been working as an assistant to a judge of the Constitutional Court since 2016. The Clarity Project system also speaks about this.
Consequently, by a strange coincidence, judge Yevgeny Shaptala, who considered the Mostobud case, has family ties with well-known persons in the judicial system, which may create a conflict of interest.
However, this is not the only trial of Prodivous. He also returned to his post by court decision. And then, quite unexpectedly, before making this fateful decision, Mr. Prodivus was in the car with Vladimir Ivanovich Student, the head of the judges of the Supreme Court, who was considering his case at that time.
As noted above, the Prodivus family owns shares of PJSC Vinnytsia Department Store. However, even here there was a trial. The controlling stake was returned to Svetlana Prodivus despite the fact that the statute of limitations had expired. All courts on this issue were heard by a permanent panel of judges: Bakulina S.V. – chairperson, Kibenko A.R., Studenets V.I. So, as we see, this composition also includes the already well-known judge Vladimir Ivanovich Studenets.
As for judge Svetlana Bakulina, as colleagues from Radio Liberty reported, back in 2013 she declared more than a million hryvnia in income. True, then all the funds passed as an inheritance. Already in 2017, she was accused of recognizing as legal in 2014 the construction of an office and residential complex with an underground parking lot in Kiyanivsky Lane, 12 in the historical center of Kyiv on the territory of the Ancient Kiev architectural reserve without approval from UNESCO.
In addition, Bakulina was a defendant in criminal proceedings regarding illegal interference in the automated system for the distribution of cases in the Supreme Economic Court. However, the VKKS overcame the veto of the OSD and recognized that its candidacy meets the criteria of professional ethics and virtue.
The DEJURE Foundation also investigated the activities of Bakulina and her trips with her ex-husband, whom she separated from in 2013, and in 2014 she traveled to Georgia. By the way, this information is not available today.
So, as we see, everything is not so simple in the Prodivus family, but, perhaps, for them there are no issues that have not been resolved.
Diversified business of the Prodivus family
The unsuccessful sand business does not affect the financial situation of the Prodivus family, because they are the founders and owners of the Regina mineral water plant.
And until 2021, the founders, besides Vladimir Prodivus, were his wife Svetlana and daughter Inna. After removing them as beneficial owners, the plant was placed in discontinued status twice.
And then he returned to the sole ownership of the Prodivus family. By the way, the Regina brand was patented as intellectual property by Vladimir Prodivus back in 2015.
Also, the Prodivus family, namely Svetlana Prodivus, is a co-owner of PJSC Vinnytsia Department Store and owns its controlling stake.
And just recently, another owner was removed from this family - Inna Bondar, daughter of the Prodivus.
The “difficult” path to success of Vladimir Prodivus
According to Antikor, Vladimir Prodivus began his great path to success back in the 1980s. But no, not from entrepreneurship or sports. At this time, Prodivus was imprisoned for theft and robbery. In 1989, he was sentenced to three years in prison, which he served in the ShIK-66 colony in the city of Shostka. So the journalists were interested in why, having been convicted under Part 2 and 19 of Art. 123, part 2 art. 193 and art. 215 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR (causing grievous bodily harm and theft of motor vehicles), which provided for a general regime, did Prodivus end up in a maximum security colony for repeat offenders? It appears that even three decades later, Prodivus' criminal case remains shrouded in mystery.
And then Mr. Vladimir became a deputy. And not just anywhere, but to the pro-government Party of Regions. And already as a people’s deputy, he voted for “dictatorial laws” and signed an appeal to the Sejm of Poland with a request to recognize the events of the Volyn tragedy of 1942-1944 as genocide. Then Leonid Kravchuk regarded this step of the people’s deputies as national treason.
But after Yanukovych fled Ukraine, deputy Prodivus condemns the events on the Maidan and leaves the Party of Regions.
And then Prodivus again takes up what he does best - racketeering. And already in May 2014, he was present together with sports boys during a shootout in the Rivne region at local illegal amber mining.
However, Vladimir Prodivus is better known as the president of the Ukrainian Boxing Federation, who, despite the amiable embrace with Russian Umar Kremlev, head of the International Boxing Association, which took place against the backdrop of Russian military aggression in Ukraine, resumed his position in 2024.
Consequently, Prodivus not only successfully runs a business, wins in courts, despite obvious violations, such as the expiration of the statute of limitations, but also holds a leadership position in the world of sports in Ukraine, which may indicate influence on the judicial system or corruption ties.
StopCor journalists turned to Prodivus himself on Facebook and sent requests to the VRP and VKKS about the legitimacy of the decisions made in the cases of the Prodivus family companies and on the questions that arose to these judges.
