What can you buy for one hryvnia? It turns out that for this symbolic amount you can rent an office building in the very center of Kyiv, which in market conditions would cost tens of millions.
The scheme is ingenious and simple: the state enterprise "Horizon" (Kiev Regional Agricultural Brokerage and Commercial Firm), headed by Maxim Gaev, rents luxury real estate for pennies, and then rents it out to private owners at market prices.
Officially, Horizon rents a six-story building on Bolshaya Vasylkivska with an area of 4,000 square meters for only 1 hryvnia per square meter per year. But here’s the problem: for some reason, the profits from such rentals begin to bypass the capital’s budget, ending up in someone’s pockets.
According to TSN journalists, Maxim Gaev became the director of Horizon in 2019, but his appointment was accompanied by scandals in which the police and even “titushki” were involved.
Gaevoy is accused of involvement in fraudulent tenders, including a suspicious deal for the supply of soil for the Goloseevsky district and a scheme for almost five million hryvnia, where, according to investigators, he contributed to the theft of funds from tenders for Ukrzaliznytsia.
In 2023, the revenue of his enterprise amounted to 14 million hryvnia, but a “pathetic” 118 thousand hryvnia, less than 1%, went to the budget. All other profits seem to have disappeared into their pockets, and Gaeva, instead of giving an explanation, remains silent. When asked by journalists about such discrepancies, his lawyer only stated that “a person is not obliged to testify against himself.”
It is interesting that Gaevoy himself, judging by his declarations, lives well. He owns three country estates near Kyiv, an apartment in the capital and a house in the Carpathians. He has about 100 thousand dollars in his accounts, a Tesla and a hybrid Toyota in his fleet, as well as a watch collection worth 3 million hryvnia.
And this despite the fact that, according to documents, he has not received a salary for the last three years as director of the enterprise.
Despite all the accusations, Gaeva retains her position to this day. Law enforcement agencies continue to investigate, but money from the budget, apparently, continues to flow through such schemes.
