According to the expert, the head of the Deposit Guarantee Fund, Svetlana Rekrut, should be fired for using Megabank cars for personal trips abroad with her family.
The managing director of the Deposit Guarantee Fund of Individuals, Svetlana Rekrut, should be fired so that she does not tarnish the reputation of the Ukrainian authorities and she should be held criminally liable for the fact that for her own trips abroad she used cars belonging to JSC Megabank, which is in the process of liquidation. This opinion was expressed in an exclusive commentary to UNN by the head of the expert group “Bureau of Policy Analysis” Viktor Bobyrenko.
“From the point of view of common European sense, this person (Recruit - ed.) should leave his position. That is, those who nominated her for this position must clearly respond to these facts. This is obvious,” Bobyrenko noted.
He added that one of the main EU standards is the institution of business reputation and Ukraine, as a state that is trying to become a member of the European Union, must also adhere to it.
“One of the main EU standards - it is usually not written - is the institution of reputation. If you get dirty, you leave; if you get caught in corruption, you leave. Flying for budget funds with my family is a loss of face and actually saying goodbye to politics, so as not to let the team down,” Bobyrenko said.
At the same time, according to him, if Rekrut does not resign, then her actions will tarnish all power in the country.
“If they don’t do this (they don’t fire Rekrut - ed.) - this is another stain on the Ukrainian government and this once again proves that we declare that we are fighting for European values, but we ourselves do not profess them. We will never become Europeans until there is political responsibility. I’m not even talking about criminal law,” Bobyrenko concluded.
Let's add
During a journalistic investigation conducted by UNN, it turned out that Rekrut spent more than 100 days abroad or on the road there or back in 2023, that is, almost half of all working days of the year. In 2022, her trips totaled more than 80 days.
It is noteworthy that, according to the declaration of Svetlana Rekrut, in 2022 she received compensation from the State Fund for Funds for Excessive Funds spent on business trips in the amount of more than 65 thousand UAH.
At the same time, the press service of the FGVFL in 2022-2023 reported only three international events that took place abroad with the personal participation of Svetlana Rekrut.
In addition, during the investigation, UNN learned that Svetlana Rekrut repeatedly used two Toyota Camry cars owned by Megabank JSC, which has been in the process of liquidation since July 2022, to travel abroad.
She started using one of the cars in October 2022.
According to the Law “On the System of Guaranteeing Deposits of Individuals,” the property of a bank that is in the process of liquidation can be used for the purpose of saving only by a representative of the Deposit Guarantee Fund, who is part of the temporary administration. According to the youcontrol website, Svetlana Rekrut is not an authorized person from the Deposit Guarantee Fund for the liquidation of Megabank JSC. Now the liquidation is carried out by Belaya Irina Vladimirovna from the Fund.
In responses to journalistic requests, the Federal Guarantee Fund claims that Svetlana Rekrut used cars that belong to Megabank JSC exclusively for business trips and to save money.
However, according to UNN, on September 22, 2022, she traveled abroad in a Toyota Camry, owned by Megabank JSC, together with her parents Valery and Valentina Rekrut. They returned to Ukraine three days later, on September 25, 2022. It is worth noting that Svetlana Rekrut traveled from Thursday to Sunday, which means it is unlikely that she went on a business trip with her parents in the car of the liquidated bank on the weekend.
Let us remind you
Following a parliamentary appeal from Nina Yuzhanina, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption began an investigation into a possible conflict of interest for Rekrut when she used cars belonging to Megabank to travel abroad.
In addition, the owner of Megabank, Viktor Subbotin, plans to contact law enforcement agencies regarding the use of Recruit bank cars for personal trips abroad and the Fund’s sale of Megabank assets at significantly reduced prices.
In response to a journalist’s request about the Recruit’s trips abroad, the FGVFL reported that information about the movement of officials of the Fund (business trips, business trips, etc.) is official information with limited access, and also added that the Recruit contacted law enforcement agencies on IA UNN.
Space bonuses and an elite “car” for officials: almost 200 million were spent on tenders in the State Fund for Guaranteed Funds - investigation
An electric car for officials costing more than two million, tenders for PR services and tidy sums for the director’s salary - these are just some of the expenses of the Deposit Guarantee Fund for individuals during a full-scale war in Ukraine. But even these cosmic sums are just a drop in the ocean against the background of the 62 billion debt of the Federal Guarantee Fund to the state, which was discovered by the Accounts Chamber. How did the fund become a “black hole” for the budget and find itself on the verge of bankruptcy?
And why did the Ministry of Finance “forgive” more than UAH 5 billion in debts to the institution reporting to it? StopKoru journalist Alla Legeza understood the intricacies of public finances.
The acquisition of the Hyonde Ionic 5 electric car by the Deposit Guarantee Fund outraged the public. After all, this powerful supercar, equipped with all modern intellectual amenities, and even all-wheel drive, today costs about 2.5 million hryvnia in the showroom, depending on the year of manufacture and configuration. Therefore, this purchase even made it into a kind of hit parade of the most expensive cars purchased by the state during the invasion, from the publication “Our Money”.
A “car” for officials instead of helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine?
Officials should be thinking about victory and helping the army instead of luxury cars, volunteer Alexey Yasinsky is indignant.
“This is generally some kind of sabotage against the Armed Forces of Ukraine, against volunteers, against all people, Ukrainians, who defend their Motherland. When we can’t raise money to repair cars, even ambulances for our military units, we think about how to do this,” he comments.
And all this despite the fact that even Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko recently urged Ukrainians to forget about expensive purchases of imported cars. After all, this, according to him, hurts the country’s economy in the conditions of Russian aggression.
“Unfortunately, for now we live in such a specific reality when “everything is fine” with us. But if we really want to go on a war footing, we need to reduce consumption several times, because we consume mainly imported goods and services,” the head of the Ministry of Finance emphasized.
On New Year's Eve, in an interview with Forbes, he also said that the department did not know where to get money to continue mobilization.
But what is happening under the very nose of the Ministry of Finance?
A state institution, which in case of a shortage of funds is credited by the same Ministry of Finance, namely the Deposit Guarantee Fund of Individuals, being almost eternally bankrupt, in the midst of a full-scale war, buys the same Hyonde Ionic 5 electric car for 2 million 388 thousand hryvnia.
In September of the year before last, an appeal was registered with the State Audit Service regarding the inexpediency of this purchase and the corruption component, but the inspection service ignored it and for more than a year did not provide an answer, says businessman Evgeniy Krikun.
“The purchase is basically too expensive. It's not that it's not the right time. It seems to me that it is not needed at all in the form in which it is, but should be cheaper. Considering that our soldiers are now buying second-hand cars, not first-hand, I believe that such cars can also be used in the civil service. They would not have any impact on the performance of their duties,” says the businessman.
StopCor asked directly from the Fund for Guaranty Funds why officials needed such an expensive car?
In response to a journalist's request, the Foundation explains: it is not profitable to maintain old company cars, there are interruptions in fuel supplies, and it is not clear how long the war will last!
“Perhaps we can close our eyes to this purchase during the full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation, maybe there really are not enough company cars, but if it were a one-time expensive purchase and if it were not for the huge debt obligations to depositors of liquidated banks and the state budget! As we managed to find out, since February 2022, the fund has spent almost 6 million UAH on the purchase of PR services, namely on advertising on TV, on websites and promotion on social networks,” comments Alla Legeza.
Did the Deposit Guarantee Fund provide assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine?
Yes. At least, they collected funds from their employees in the amount of one day’s salary several times, according to information from their own sources. In response to a request from StopCor, the fund only replied that none of its employees were forced to make donations.
But the question: what kind of charitable foundations were they, how they were selected, how much money they saved, what exactly they purchased and whether they purchased them at all - they ignored them.
The Fund also spared no expense in paying for PR services during the full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation. The largest amount, namely 2 million 277 and a half thousand, was given to a certain individual entrepreneur Ivan Nikolaevich Petrenko. Services are provided by the company "Vip Media", which today does not even have its own website.
And the information in the videos on Facebook is not entirely true, explains lawyer Mikhail Evseev. And although now, with changes in the law, the Fund must return the entire contribution amount, the expert does not know such “lucky” ones.
How many victims did the Deposit Guarantee Fund never return their financial savings to?
Now the exact number is unknown. But there are definitely a lot of such people, says Bohdan Tsimeyko, head of the public organization “Protection of the Ukrainian People,” which helps depositors and debtors of bankrupt banks. According to him, many people never received a refund during their lifetime.
According to the human rights activist, it is not stated anywhere exactly when the depositor of a liquidated bank will receive the rest of his funds: when the fund earns money, then it will give it back. Because this structure is self-sufficient. It receives income in the form of fees from operating banks and the sale of property of liquidated financial institutions, income from investments in securities, and if it’s really in the “minus”, it receives loans attracted from the NBU.
“The funds of legal entities, which should have been received from the sale of liquidated property, first of all go to individuals, for the salaries of participants of the Guarantee Fund, employees of the Guarantee Fund, and their salaries are hundreds of thousands, millions of hryvnia. For what? The guarantee fund is bankrupt. He doesn’t have his own money,” Tsimeyko emphasizes.
Who receives huge salaries and for what merits?
In the request, StopKor also asked to show what income the management of the Guarantee Fund had, but they ignored the request and advised to look for this information in the declarations.
“We searched, and what we saw simply shocked us. Of the latest statements published on the NAPC website from the director of the fund, Svetlana Rekrut, there are only changes in the property status for 2022, namely her salary and bonuses from the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation to May of the year before last. For example, in March of the year before last she received a salary and bonus of almost 478 thousand hryvnia, in April - 444 thousand. That is, the monthly official income was barely half a million hryvnia,” says the journalist.
It is worth noting that the Accounts Chamber has already indicated in its report that such bonuses for the Fund’s management are actually groundless.
Despite debts and signs of management inefficiency, head Svetlana Rekrut talks about achievements and actively promotes the work of the fund, and gave at least six interviews in November 2022 alone.
In the request, journalists also asked to indicate the size of the Fund’s monetary obligations to the state. And although in the answer they assure that they no longer have any debts to the State Budget, however, as stated in the report of the Accounts Chamber dated June 2023, the Guarantee Fund had a debt to the Ministry of Finance in the amount of 62.5 billion hryvnia and had to transfer 5.4 billion to the State Budget through domestic government loan bonds (OVDP).
What kind of dubious tenders did the FGVFL “notice”?
During the large-scale war, the Deposit Guarantee Fund spent more than 185 million UAH on IT services and the purchase of laptops. Is it a lot or a little? It seems too much, considering that during the same period the National Bank, which has regional branches in most regions of the country, spent four times less on IT purchases - more than 45 million, and the State Property Fund - a total of 4.5 million.
Meanwhile, the Guarantee Fund spent UAH 9 million 797 thousand on the purchase of laptops alone. A total of 330 units were purchased during the full-scale war. Why does the Foundation need so many new computers? And this despite the fact that at the same time the Fund is selling almost new, similar laptops from bankrupt banks, often at a “discount” of even 10 times the starting price. That is, during the war, the FGVFL buys hundreds of new laptops for almost 10 million, and at the same time sells the same equipment ten times cheaper.
By the way, one of the companies, Vinncom Ukraine LLC, which during this time won six tenders of the fund for a total of 17.5 million hryvnia, was mentioned in criminal proceedings on fictitious agreements for the withdrawal of tax credits and in the case of the theft of money from the State Border Guard Service and the military parts.
Another company, IT-DEVELOPMENT, which, without competitors, took the tender for almost 2 million, appeared in criminal proceedings regarding the receipt by employees of the Boryspil airport of kickbacks and the supply of IT services at inflated prices.
Another company, IT Solutions, which won as many as eight tenders worth more than 12 million from the fund, was involved in various criminal cases involving the sale of software at inflated prices and collusion with employees of the Ministry of Defense, the State Special Communications Agency, the State Agency for Infrastructure Projects, and the like.
Let us note that StopKor in its requests asked various control bodies to evaluate these purchases, but the Accounts Chamber responded that they do not plan to conduct an audit of the fund, the Ministry of Finance noted that they do not have the right to interfere in the activities of the fund, and the NBU and the State Audit Service did not provide an answer at all. period established by law.
Let us remind you that the State Audit Service, together with law enforcement officers, is investigating the case of the Lviv Arsenal company, which received money from the Ministry of Defense for the supply of a large batch of mortar rounds worth UAH 1.4 billion, but has long expired the contract and has not transferred a single mine to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The head of the department told where this money went.
