Law enforcement officials continue to investigate abuses in the area of towing cars from the capital’s streets and storing them at special sites.
As part of another criminal proceeding, investigators recorded that the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration illegally inflated the price of “buying back” vehicles from impound lots - from 720 hryvnia to 1,270 hryvnia.
The consequence of this was that during 2021-2022 alone, Kiev residents and guests of the capital overpaid 10 business entities about 51 million hryvnia for the evacuation of 37.4 thousand cars. In addition, the National Police established that municipal parking inspectors were tasked with “detaining” the maximum possible number of vehicles, and the corresponding agreements with “tow truck” companies were concluded by officials of the capital’s mayor’s office in violation of certain procedures. At the same time, you probably shouldn’t count on a speedy solution to these problems.
Law enforcement officers have already tried this before, but were unable to bring anyone to justice for such fraud.
Currently, the capital's law enforcement officers are investigating another case of numerous violations of the law during the evacuation of cars from the streets of Kyiv and their storage at impound areas.
We are talking about criminal proceedings No. 42023102090000068 dated March 31, 2023, which was opened by the Solomensky Department of the National Police of Kyiv. The investigation in this case is carried out on the grounds of a criminal offense under Part 4 of Art. 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - misappropriation, embezzlement of property or taking possession of property through abuse of official position, committed on a large scale or under conditions of martial law or a state of emergency.
Let us note that the facts that interested law enforcement officers were established by the State Audit Service of Ukraine as part of a financial audit of the implementation of budget programs by the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) for the period from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2022. Please note that the corresponding audit report No. 17-22/12 dated July 5, 2023 is not publicly available.
What are law enforcement investigating?
According to the investigation, in the period from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2022, the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration entered into a number of agreements for the delivery of vehicles (evacuation) to impound areas with 15 business entities. We were talking about the following enterprises and companies: KP "Kievtransparkservis", KP "Center for Traffic Management", LLC "Expedition 777", LLC "Expressavtokom", LLC "Ukrtranscontract", LLC "TD "Import-Trade", LLC "Rabisto" , Parking Ukraine LLC, Avtosos-Service LLC, Alga Trans LLC, Bitum Invest LLC, LLC "Evacuator Service", as well as three individual entrepreneurs, whose names and surnames are not specified in the court rulings in this case.
According to these agreements, the providers of these services were required to transport cars whose owners or users violated the rules of stopping or parking on capital roads to special sites using tow trucks. The detention of these vehicles, that is, the recording of violations and the transfer of data to tow trucks, was carried out by the parking inspectors of the Office (inspection), which at that time was part of the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the capital city state administration.
To return their cars from impound areas, their owners or users must pay 1,270 hryvnia to specified business entities for transportation services. In addition, motorists must also pay the state a fine of 680 hryvnia for incorrect parking (if paid within 10 days, the fine is halved) and 24 hryvnia for every day the vehicle is stored on this site (144 hryvnia per day - starting from the 8th day ).
At the same time, during the investigation, law enforcement officers established that the amount of payment for the evacuation of vehicles in the capital was almost doubled. The fact is that in our state it should cost 720 hryvnia - such “prices” were established by a joint order of three Ukrainian ministries No. 967/1218/869 dated October 10, 2013 for vehicles weighing up to 2 thousand kg inclusive (average weight of passenger cars. - KV). From the data of KP GIOC (administrator of the Kyiv Digital service, through which evacuation services are paid), law enforcement officers learned that 10 of the 15 above-mentioned business entities during 2021-2022 received 117.87 million hryvnia for transporting 92,8 thousand units of cars (data for the other 5 companies there are no court rulings - KV). The Center for Traffic Management received the most funds - 47.6 million hryvnia for the evacuation of 37.4 thousand vehicles
Taking into account the difference between the “legal” and “real” cost of transporting cars in the amount of 550 hryvnia, law enforcement officers came to the conclusion that during 2021-2022, residents and guests of the city of Kyiv overpaid 51 million hryvnia to the providers of these services (including 20, 6 million “extra” hryvnias were received by the CP “Center for Traffic Management”).
Law enforcement also learned that employees of the parking department (Inspectorate) of the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration, on the instructions of their leadership, “had to temporarily detain and transport the maximum number of vehicles from the territory of Kyiv.” That is, obviously, the investigators hinted at the existence of certain plans for the evacuation of cars that inspectors must carry out. In addition, the National Police noted that the relevant department of the capital’s mayor’s office entered into agreements with “evacuators” without “complying with the procedure for selecting and checking enterprises for compliance with specific regulatory conditions.”
Investigators also drew attention to the fact that these agreements stipulated that towing companies receive payment for their services from those individuals who are the owners or users of the cars. In this regard, according to law enforcement officers, in fact, we are talking about the provision of services on a compulsory basis, which contradicts the norms of the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Consumer Rights” and the Civil Code of Ukraine, because this evacuation is carried out on the initiative of inspectors of the Kyiv City State Administration (i.e. representatives of the local self-government body), and not on the initiative of “car enthusiasts”. At the same time, according to the investigation, public offer agreements were not concluded between car owners or drivers and service providers and, accordingly, the cost of evacuation was also not agreed upon.
“Taking into account the above, the lack of management decisions made by the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration and inadequate control over the activities of service providers for the forced transportation of temporarily detained vehicles to special sites by decision of parking inspectors led to a violation of the rights and legitimate interests of individuals and legal entities to collect transportation in the amount more than established by the relevant order No. 967/1218/869 dated October 10, 2013. In addition, this led to the unjustified receipt by service providers of funds from citizens’ accounts in the amount of 51.04 million hryvnia,” the court rulings on this investigation note.
Back on October 18, 2023, law enforcement officers conducted a series of searches at the persons involved in this case, in particular at the residential addresses of one of the “parking” inspectors and the director of Tow Truck Service LLC, in the office of Express-T LLC, etc. During these searches, property was seized, which was later recognized as material evidence in this case. Among other things, we are talking about mobile phones, tax invoices, balance sheet information, reports of fuel consumption measurements, production logs of tow trucks, logs of daily pre-trip and post-trip medical examinations of drivers, etc. Subsequently, during November 2023, the Solomensky District Court of Kyiv seized all this property.
Most of the above-mentioned documents were seized at the Express-T office, but they concerned not only this LLC, but also three other companies that entered into contracts with the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration - Avtosos-Service, Tow Truck Service and Expedition 777.”
Rich backstory
As KV previously reported, both law enforcement agencies and the public previously drew attention to the above-mentioned violations.
Thus, within the framework of criminal proceedings No. 120200000000000808, which was opened by the Main Investigation Department of the National Police on August 20, 2020, law enforcement officers established that thanks to the “artificial creation of grounds for evacuation,” only for the period from January 4, 2021 to March 31, about 7, 6 million hryvnia. We were talking specifically about the funds that drivers paid excessively to pick up their cars from special sites.
Investigators then found out that the probable attackers - parking inspectors - had clear work plans: they had to deliver 300 vehicles to special sites every day. As law enforcement officers learned, to carry them out, participants in the scheme even installed a sign prohibiting parking at already parked cars - “Road Works.” In this case, investigators were most actively involved in the activities of Expedition 777 LLC, Evakuator Service LLC and Avtosos-Service LLC, which directly provided the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration with car evacuation services, as well as Express-T LLC, which probably lent its tow trucks to the above-mentioned companies.
As part of this investigation, during August 2021, at least five officials of the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration received suspicions from law enforcement officers of abuse of power or official position, which led to grave consequences (Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code). Among these officials was the then head of the parking inspection and deputy head of the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration, Dmitry Rakhmatullin (in the collage on the left). According to investigators, it was he who developed this scheme and ensured its implementation, as he was familiar with the owners of the beneficial owners of the above-mentioned companies.
However, in the future, some suspects were able to judicially cancel reports of suspicion received from law enforcement officers. Dmitry Rakhmatullin, in particular, achieved such “success”. It is still unknown exactly what “successes” law enforcement officers have had regarding other defendants.
And in April 2023, the public organization (NGO) “Non-Stop” submitted statements regarding violations in this area to a number of bodies - the Office of the Prosecutor General, the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office, the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB), the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), all ten metropolitan district prosecutor's offices and departments of the National Police. Members of the applicant organization indicated that volunteers and internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in Kyiv “became victims of the arbitrary, groundless and illegal systematic evacuation of vehicles in order to collect in favor of private companies services for evacuation and storage at impound sites.” .
The point was that the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration, when concluding the above-mentioned agreements, creates non-competitive conditions - it signs contracts only with “controlled and affiliated enterprises, in particular, Expedition 777 LLC.” At the same time, the organization noted that these agreements are concluded in such a way as to “maximally protect the business interests of tow truck entrepreneurs by limiting their liability, the ability to independently set tariffs and make decisions at their own discretion.” In addition, they say, municipal inspectors initiate the removal of violating vehicles to impound areas even when this is not necessary - for example, when the vehicle is not bothering anyone.
Also, the NGO “Non-Stop” reported that as of April 2023, there were more than four hundred proceedings in the courts on complaints from individuals to appeal the decisions of the capital’s parking inspectors to impose fines for violating the rules of stopping, parking and parking vehicles. The NGO “Non-Stop” noted that “a significant number of appeals indicate the actual systematic commission of unlawful actions on the part of parking inspectors of the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration.”
However, as of early June 2023, law enforcement officers had not begun an investigation into these facts. Therefore, the NGO “Non-Stop” sent complaints to a number of capital courts about the inaction of investigators with a demand to enter information about the offenses declared by the organization into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations (URDR). This was probably done to “force” at least some of the law enforcement agencies to take up the investigation.
It is known that at least one capital court - the Dneprovsky district court - on May 25, 2023, nevertheless satisfied the complaint of the Non-Stop NGO. Thus, the local district prosecutor's office was obliged to study the facts that this Goshka reported to her. However, whether law enforcement officers took any specific measures regarding these facts is not yet available in open sources.
What is the evacuation procedure
Let us remind you that initially parking inspectors monitored compliance with the relevant traffic rules in the capital since 2019 on the basis of the decision of the Kyiv City Council No. 1530/5594 of September 27, 2018. Then these inspectors worked at the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration. However, later, in October-November 2023, the capital city council, by decisions No. 7112/7153 and No. 7407/7448, “reassigned” them to another structural unit of the Kyiv City State Administration - the Department of Territorial Control, which was formed in July 2023 through the “reorganization” of the Kyiv City State Administration and management (inspections) of self-governing control of the Kyiv City State Administration.
Despite all these upheavals, the rules of the game for inspectors have not actually changed. Thus, they are authorized to record violations of traffic rules (traffic rules) related to parking and parking, and to consider cases of such administrative violations. If a vehicle interferes with road traffic (for example, parked on tram tracks, near a road work site, etc.), inspectors have the right (or even “obligation”) to evacuate such a vehicle to special sites located on the street. Ignat Khotkevich, 20-B and st. Dreams (formerly Academician Tupolev St.), 19.
By the way, all this can happen without the presence of the driver: on September 27, 2018, shortly before the start of work of the capital’s municipal parking inspection, new car parking rules came into force in Ukraine, according to which violations in this area can be recorded in photos and videos.
The inspectors themselves, according to the law, should not and cannot engage in evacuation - in fact, they only transmit information about the need to remove the car and take it where it is needed. Vehicle owners can find out about the evacuation of their cars in several ways - for example, by calling the police or checking such data through the Kyiv Digital application. As noted above, in order to pick up his vehicle, the motorist must pay a fine and compensate for the services of transporting the temporarily detained car to a special site (in essence, pay for the tow truck service).
What is known about the defendants
According to the Youcontrol analytical system, the capital's Expedition 777 LLC was registered in August 2019. Its leader, founder and ultimate beneficiary is a resident of the village of Litki, Brovary district of the Kiev region, Alexander Kovalevsky.
Express-T LLC was registered in Kyiv in December 2010. Now its director is Dmitry Zinchuk, the founders are residents of the capital Vladimir Podolin, Natalya Priymak and Alexander Priymak. The last two are also the official owners of this company. Interestingly, Natalya Priymak, as of February 2022, was an accountant of another company that appeared in the stories described above - Evakuator-Service LLC. In turn, the head of the capital's Avtosos-Service LLC, registered in January 2008, is Ruslan Poruba, and the founder and final beneficiary is Igor Samofal, a resident of the city of Brovary.
The Parking Department (Inspectorate) under the Department of Territorial Control of the Kyiv City State Administration is headed by Sergei Dubenko (on the right in the collage). When exactly he was appointed to this position, there is no information in open sources, but he also led this structure even when it was subordinate to the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration. For example, in April 2022, the media “titled” him as the head of this inspection. Before this, Dubenko worked in one of the departments of the same structure, and even earlier he headed the Odessatransparkservice enterprise and was an adviser to the mayor of Odessa Gennady Trukhanov.
At the head of the parking inspection at the transport department of the Kyiv City State Administration, Sergei Dubenko replaced the aforementioned Dmitry Rakhmatullin, who had headed this structural unit since December 3, 2018. In parallel, Rakhmatullin has been Deputy Director of the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration since May 2018. There is also no publicly available information about when he was fired from the capital’s mayor’s office.
The Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration has been headed by Ruslan Kandibor since September 1, 2021. His predecessors in this post were Valentin Osipov (from February 6, 2020 to April 5, 2021) and now the former first deputy director of the same Department, Ivan Shpilevoy, who headed this structural unit as acting. director” after Osipov’s dismissal. The activities of this department have been personally supervised by the head of Kyiv, Vitaliy Klitschko, since November 9, 2021.
Since May 24, 2023, the Department of Territorial Control of the Kyiv City State Administration has been headed by Mikhail Budilov, a deputy of the last VIII convocation of the Kyiv City Council from the VO “Svoboda”. Since February 2022, the activities of this structural unit have been controlled by the Deputy Chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration Petr Panteleev
