The head of Kievmedspetstrans faces up to 12 years in prison for bribing experts and pressuring witnesses

The director of the Kyivmedspetstrans corporation, Vitaly Beznosyuk (in the collage), faces up to 12 years in prison for a number of corruption offenses. He is currently an official suspect in two relevant criminal proceedings.

In particular, investigators have already established that this official may be involved in the embezzlement of 12.6 million hryvnia during the purchase of spare parts for ambulances. The capital’s budget could have lost another 287 thousand hryvnia due to the fact that Beznosyuk and his subordinates actually decided to purchase deliberately false forensic results from a government agency, which would refute the facts of “budget cuts.” At the same time, the head of the said utility organization is trying to avoid responsibility by hook or by crook. Thus, he is also charged with bribing an expert (by the way, at least one of the experts has already received a court conviction for this), and some witnesses from among Beznosyuk’s subordinates accused the latter of psychological pressure - they say he demanded that they change their testimony.

As it became known to KV, within the framework of criminal proceedings No. 12023100100003004 dated March 27, 2023, law enforcement officers are investigating the facts of numerous corruption offenses on the part of officials of the public utility organization (KO) “Kievmedspetstrans”.

Investigators of the Shevchenko Department of the National Police of Kyiv, preliminary, accuse the defendants of this case of committing crimes under Part 4 and Part 5 of Art. 191 (expense and appropriation of property by an official’s abuse of his official position, by prior conspiracy by a group of persons, under martial law) of the Criminal Code (CC) of Ukraine.

What are law enforcement investigating?

Law enforcement officers established that officials of the Kievmedspetstrans KO organized a scheme to embezzle funds allocated by the capital’s authorities “for the functioning and high-quality provision of services in the field of providing Kyiv with ambulances.” According to investigators, the essence of this scheme is to create a network of fictitious enterprises that win purchases of auto parts for ambulances. At the same time, as the National Police found out, officials of Kyivmedspetstrans involved their subordinates and managers of controlled business entities in the implementation of this mechanism.

Thus, investigators learned that in the period from June 2022 to July 2023, the winners of tenders, the customer of which was Kyivmedspetstrans, were business entities and commercial enterprises that had certain signs of fictitiousness. At the same time, according to the National Police, in all cases the tender offers of these companies were the highest.

However, despite this, as a result of such tenders, a number of agreements were concluded between Kievmedspetstrans and the relevant business entities for the supply of spare parts for ambulances for a total amount of more than 20 million hryvnia.

Law enforcement also established that in the future, officials of Kievmedspetstrans and supplier companies entered false information into financial and economic documentation regarding the actual volumes and quality of supplied auto parts. In particular, investigators learned that in fact, under these contracts, a smaller volume of goods was supplied (approximately 2 times), auto parts were non-original and of low quality. Subsequently, the “extra” funds (the difference between the cost of spare parts “according to documents” and their actual cost) were cashed out from the accounts of suppliers through a chain of non-commodity transactions, after which these financial resources were distributed among the participants of the specified organized group.

In addition, according to the National Police, during March-May 2023, officials of the Kyivmedspetstrans company could have wasted 287 thousand hryvnia when signing and implementing contracts with the Research Center for Forensic Expertise in the field of information technology and intellectual property of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. According to these agreements, which, by the way, were concluded without an open tender procedure, this institution was supposed to carry out various forensic examinations, which should become proof of the “innocence” of the management of Kievmedspetstrans in embezzlement of budget funds in the purchase of auto parts, which was also investigated as part of another criminal proceedings (discussed below - KV). That is, we were talking about carrying out deliberately false examinations at the expense of the Kyiv budget.

On April 3, 2024, law enforcement officers reported suspicion to the director of Kyivmedspetstrans, Vitaly Beznosyuk. He is officially charged with committing a crime under the above-mentioned Part 4 of Art. 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – embezzlement of budget funds in the implementation of contracts concluded with the institution of forensic examinations. Please note that the maximum penalty under this article is up to 8 years in prison.

Subsequently, National Police investigators filed a petition with the Shevchenkovsky District Court of Kyiv to remove the suspect from his position during the investigation. Law enforcement officers explained the need for this, in particular, by the fact that, while at work, Vitaly Beznosyuk allegedly exerted psychological influence and pressure on four of his subordinates who were witnesses in this case.

For example, we are talking about the chief engineer of Kievmedspetstrans, who previously gave incriminating testimony as a witness regarding the illegal activities of his boss. Thus, according to the investigation, Beznosyuk demanded that this subordinate change his testimony, and having received a refusal, he issued an order to reduce the position of chief engineer at Kievmedspetstrans, which subsequently led to the dismissal of the said person from the utility organization.

Law enforcement also established that Vitaly Beznosyuk exerts psychological pressure on the director of the Research Center for Forensic Expertise in the field of information technology and intellectual property. Investigators came to this conclusion against the backdrop of the fact that on April 3, 2024 (the day the suspicion was received - KV), the head of Kievmedspetstrans sent a letter to this institution demanding the return of funds paid by the utility organization under the above-mentioned contracts.

However, on May 1, 2024, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court denied the law enforcement officers’ request. One of the reasons given by the investigating judge was that the reduction of the position of the chief engineer is not a disciplinary sanction, as law enforcement officers believe, and therefore, they say, there can be no talk of any psychological pressure on the subordinate in this case. Among other things, the court noted that one of the four witnesses, who was allegedly pressured by Vitaliy Beznosyuk, subsequently provided the National Police with a letter stating that the suspect did not influence her in any way, and that, supposedly, this letter was prepared it voluntarily after consultation with a lawyer.

Interesting details

It should be noted that forensic expert Vitaly Dibrov, who carried out the above-mentioned examinations at the request of the Kyivmedspetstrans company last year, has already received a guilty verdict from the court.

Thus, on February 1, 2024, the Shevchenkovsky District Court of Kyiv sentenced him to two years of restriction of freedom, which was replaced by a probationary (“suspended”) sentence for the same period, as well as a fine in the amount of 34 thousand hryvnia with deprivation of the right to engage in judicial proceedings - expert activities for a period of one year. Vitaly Dibrov was found guilty of committing criminal offenses under Part 3 of Art. 368-4 (acceptance of unlawful benefits by an expert) and Part 2 of Art. 384 (misleading the court or other authorized bodies for mercenary reasons) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. At the same time, the forensic expert does not have the right to appeal such a verdict, because he entered into an agreement with the prosecutor to admit guilt, which, in particular, allowed him to receive a fairly lenient sentence.

As part of the investigation into Dibrov, law enforcement officers established that it was he who, from April to June 2023, compiled and submitted to the office of the aforementioned forensic examination center six deliberately false conclusions of a forensic transport and merchandising examination. These documents noted that the expected cost of spare parts purchased by Kievmedspetstrans (that is, the cost that was indicated in the tender announcements) was less than the average market cost of such goods - in the amount of 74.9 thousand hryvnia to 503.7 thousand . hryvnia (depending on the type of spare parts and, accordingly, the contract for their supply). In fact, all this product was much more expensive.

In addition, investigators learned that Vitaly Dibrov accepted an offer of undue benefits for the “correct” results of examinations from the deputy head of transport operation of the Kievmedspetstrans KO. Moreover, the bribe was transferred not in “money”, but “in kind”: on June 16 last year, the forensic expert’s car, a 2012 Ford Focus, was repaired and painted free of charge at the production workshops of the specified utility organization (the cost of this work was 30.3 thousand hryvnia).

As for the criminal proceedings, in which the management of Kyivmedspetstrans tried to prove the absence of “budget cuts” with the help of “fake” examinations, it was opened by the Shevchenko Department of the National Police on November 15, 2022 under No. 42022102100000201. As part of this investigation, law enforcement officers studied the facts of embezzlement and misappropriation of budget funds during the purchase of spare parts by the specified utility organization within the framework of 22 tenders held over the past years. Investigators found that as a result of these purchases, Kyiv’s budget could lose 12.6 million hryvnia. Thus, according to the National Police, the supply of these goods was carried out by companies controlled by the management of Kievmedspetstrans, which, moreover, had signs of fictitiousness, and the cost of spare parts was inflated.

Law enforcement also learned that in order to conceal the crime, Kievmedspetstrans officials initiated an examination of the compliance of purchase prices with market prices. According to investigators, “the subject of the examination was deliberately forged official documents allegedly received from official importers and manufacturers. That is, obviously, it was said that the defendants tried to mislead the investigation with the help of an examination carried out using “false” documents with prices for spare parts. At the same time, law enforcement officers found out that in exchange for providing the correct conclusion, employees of the Kyivmedspetstrans KO provided the experts with free repairs of their personal cars at their base.

As of August 2023, within the framework of this proceeding, “10 members of an organized group” received suspicion from law enforcement officers: the director of Kievmedspetstrans, his two deputies, the head of the logistics service of this organization, five directors of supplier companies and another unnamed person, "controlling their activities."

In particular, Vitaly Beznosyuk is currently charged with committing crimes under the above-mentioned Part 5 of Art. 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (expense of budgetary funds), part 2 of Art. 368-4 (bribery of an expert) and Part 2 of Art. 384 (misleading the court), as well as Part 3 of Art. 358 (forgery of documents), part 1 and part 2 of Art. 366 (official forgery). The investigation into this official is still ongoing, and under these articles the head of Kievmedspetstrans faces up to 12 years in prison. However, the investigation into the crimes committed by most of the other participants in this scheme was completed back in December 2023, and now the prosecutor’s office is preparing to transfer their cases to court - after the suspects have familiarized themselves with dozens of volumes of criminal proceedings.

Corrupt background

As KV reported, KO "Kievmedspetstrans" continued to appear in high-profile corruption scandals. For example, in January 2019, the Solomensky Department of the National Police of Kyiv opened an investigation into the embezzlement and misappropriation of funds during procurement by this municipal association. Then law enforcement officers preliminary established that in the period 2017-2018, Kievmedspetstrans entered into agreements with a number of companies for the supply of spare parts and electrical equipment for a total amount of about 57 million hryvnia, but part of these funds was probably stolen. Investigators came to such conclusions because some of these companies had signs of fictitiousness, and therefore could not provide such services to the utility organization. At the same time, law enforcement officers indicated that the director of Kievmedspetstrans, his deputy for economic issues, the chief accountant of this organization, etc. may be involved in the commission of these crimes.

However, this investigation did not bring any results: the law enforcement officers did not even serve any suspicion; the last court ruling on this proceeding was dated July 12, 2019.