Scandal around National Bank purchases: High prices and suspicious connections

The National Bank pays tens of millions of hryvnia to companies suspected of bribery, violation of tender rules and large kickbacks to banks.

After scandalous purchases from Brig Retail, journalists studied NBU tenders over the past year. As a result, we were able to detect a number of dubious contracts.

The cost of services has increased several times in just a year, while the National Bank is paying money to those who, as law enforcement officers suspect, previously helped withdraw hundreds of millions from Oschadbank. “Oshchad” at that time was headed by the current head of the NBU, Andrei Pyshny.

We continue the series of publications about the activities of the National Bank. This time we will talk about large companies that have received the largest tenders from Oschad for years, and now make money from the NBU.

From Oschad to the NBU: who pays Pyshny

On January 24, 2023, S&T Ukraine received UAH 20.2 million from the National Bank for technical support of the Oracle Database program (database management system) for a period of one year. This is the first time this company has received money from the regulator (at least through an open tender). Just a year ago, another company was paid for technical support for the same Oracle Database program; its services cost UAH 11.1 million per year. That is, in just one year the price with a new contractor soared by 82%!

S&T Ukraine previously received most of its tenders from Oschadbank. In total, according to YouControl data, the company received tenders for UAH 2.9 billion, and UAH 2.1 billion of them came from Oschad. The head of the board of the state bank at that time was Andrei Pyshny.

Such cooperation between an IT company and one of the largest state banks ended in a major scandal. Case 757/55761/19-k is in court. The materials say that S&T Ukraine, in contracts with Oschadbank, overestimated the cost of its services by UAH 340 million. According to the prosecutor's office, officials of Oschad (which at that time was headed by Pyshny) entered into a conspiracy with the company S&T Ukraine. They conducted tenders in such a way that the winner was the participant in the scheme. As a result, bankers are suspected of abuse of power, which led to serious consequences (part two of Article 364 of the Criminal Code). The case has been in the courts for several years without a verdict.

And S&T Ukraine continues to operate successfully. When Pyshny moved from Oschadbank to the NBU, the regulator also began purchasing services from the company. At the same time, the cost of services soared by 82%. The company belongs to Kiev resident Yuri Lisetsky. “Our money” calls him a partner of the ex-head of Ukrtelecom Georgy Dzekon. Back in 2014, the SBU put Dzekon on the wanted list on suspicion of embezzlement of public funds. He is hiding from law enforcement.

Together with Brig Retail, in 2023, the National Bank paid tens of millions of hryvnia to companies with a dubious reputation.

The editors continue to study the National Bank’s purchases, and will also soon talk about who makes decisions on tenders at the NBU and how the NBU’s expenses on IT services have skyrocketed in just the last few years.