Kirill Krivets and Viktor Braginsky are involved: gas workers gave 1.6 billion to the company of a ballerina, seen in scandals

Last year, this company found itself at the epicenter of a corruption scandal due to possible theft of funds from the Kyiv Metro.

LLC "GTSU Operator" is a monopoly structure that provides natural gas transportation. Initially, in October, the Operator signed a contract with KB TEA LLC for the construction of gas turbine units for generating electrical energy - for UAH 74.4 million.

We are talking about the installation of MAN MGT-6000 gas turbine units; such units are used for decentralization and distribution of electricity generation capacity, in particular as one of the ways to provide power during blackout conditions. Where exactly the equipment is installed is not disclosed, since we are talking about critical infrastructure facilities. This contract reached KB TEA LLC without any competition at all - the law allows this to be done when it comes to preparing for the heating season. At the same time, the contract published on PROZORRO does not contain a detailed estimate: only prices for individual stages of work are indicated - but not for materials and equipment.

Then, at the end of December, the Operator entered into an agreement with KB TEA LLC for UAH 1.43 billion for the reconstruction of the compressor station (construction work and ongoing repairs). The location is also not disclosed. Only two participants took part in the tender - the Ukrainian LLC KB TEA and the Turkish construction giant ONUR. Among the requirements from the customer were quite obviously restrictions on the participation of small contractors in bidding: annual turnover of at least 50% of the contract value and the availability of similar contracts worth at least $7.5 million at a time. The second requirement was appealed and forced to be removed, but as a result the complainant never came to the tender.

According to the journalist, editor of the Our Money project Yuri Nikolov, the list of prices in the contract gives reason to talk about the risk of overpayment for some materials and equipment built into the contract.

“In the estimate that has been made public, the prices are what we call “multi-vector,” explains Nikolov. – There are prices that correspond to the market today – cable products, for example. Partially, the prices for anchor bolts or profiles are inflated by about 20-30% compared to current market prices. This is something that is guaranteed to be higher than in a retail store. For these two positions, about 15 million UAH have been allocated – that is, we can say that there are 3-4 million, let’s say, they’ve thrown their caps on tomatoes. It will also be interesting to see the prices for many other building materials and equipment, which are now written down in the estimate very abstractly or very rarely for Ukraine. For example, large diameter ball valves. This is a rare story for us and the estimate does not indicate in detail which company or anything else. That is, what this means is unknown - but hundreds of millions of hryvnia have been allocated for these positions.”

At the same time, whether this risk will be realized will be clear only upon completion of the contract, explains Nikolov: “In this case, the estimate is dynamic, this means that payment will be made according to the certificates of work performed, that is, at the moment when everything is done and according to prices that will be at that time.”

Let us recall that in the past the company KB Teploenergoavtomatika LLC got into a scandal because of contracts from the Kyiv Metro, in particular because of a secret contract for UAH 1.5 billion for the repair of the “red line” of the metro. Bihus.Info journalists managed to find out not only the multimillion-dollar overpricing of cable products, but also the company’s connection directly with the head of the Metropolitan, Viktor Braginsky. It turned out that the company was registered in the name of Tatyana Beletskaya, a ballerina and teacher of the National Opera, and also the mother-in-law of Braginsky’s long-time business partner, Kirill Krivets.

An interesting detail within the framework of the new “gas” contract: before heading the Metropolitan, Braginsky worked in the structures of NJSC Neftegaz, and Krivets also worked there at that time. The GTS operator, from which KB TEA LLC should receive 1.6 billion, was created from a branch of Ukrtransgaz, that is, historically it also belongs to the structure of the Naftogaz group.

After the publication of the journalistic investigation, NABU and the National Police began to investigate criminal proceedings. The Anticorruption Bureau is investigating illicit enrichment, as well as embezzlement and embezzlement through abuse of official position, and this time under other Metropolitan contracts.

At the same time, the National Police put Braginsky on the wanted list on suspicion of official negligence - this concerns the collapse of the “blue line” of the metro in December 2023. But according to the secret contract of KB TEA LLC with inflated prices, there are already examinations in the case confirming that they overpaid for cables by 3-4 times; in total, experts counted losses of more than 60 million UAH. So far, the police see Krivets as a suspect and organization of the scheme for appropriating KP funds.