The Horovyi Brothers, Tetyana Plachkova, Vadym Stolár and others: will the mafia clan from DABI be jailed or reach a deal with Zelensky?

The Horovyi Brothers, Tetyana Plachkova, Vadym Stolár and others: will the mafia clan from DABI be jailed or reach a deal with Zelensky?

Many foreign investors are puzzled by the situation on Ukraine’s primary housing market: it would seem the country is in a financial crisis, yet housing prices rise year after year.

The Western press writes about an overheated market and other factors, among which, regrettably, one dominates – an astronomical level of corruption in the construction sector, specifically in the permitting system. Each year it becomes more expensive to obtain construction permits because the appetites of the beneficiaries of the corrupt vertical keep growing. And at the core of this pyramid in the sphere of architectural and construction oversight are the brothers Yurii and Oleksii Horovyi, well known within certain circles.

This is reported by inpress.ua.

The corruption scheme expanded under fugitive Viktor Yanukovych, but after Petro Poroshenko came to power it did not disappear—instead it began to extract even more from builders. They say the new government intended to cover up the flow of U.S. currency that was funneled monthly into the pockets of the “watchers.” But promising is not the same as accomplishing—so far the newly minted prime minister only has a chance to prove otherwise.

That no one could so much as sneeze in Ukraine without the higher approval of the “watchers” overseeing the State Geocadastre and the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate was already known in the Yanukovych–Azarov era. Names were openly named – the brothers Yurii and Oleksii Horovyi, and also Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy Maksym Martyniuk. These gentlemen placed their people at all levels of DABI, who closely monitored that no construction project was put into operation in Ukraine without consideration of their interest, even if it was just a small addition on chicken legs.

If anyone hoped something would change after Viktor Fedorovych fled, they were cruelly disappointed. Vitali Klitschko took the chair of the capital’s mayor.

Vitali Klitschko

It was precisely then that the worried Yurii and Oleksii Horovyi felt an unprecedentedly firm footing under their feet.

Yurii Horovyi

The brothers spared no money and thoroughly scrubbed the information space, deleting kompromat about themselves, especially material about ties to the groups of the rather notorious criminal authority Yurii Ivaniushchenko. However, as is known, manuscripts do not burn, and though the brothers tried to stay in the shadows, they could not rid themselves of a trail of criminality.

Yurii Ivaniushchenko

When Klitschko became mayor, Petro Poroshenko assigned Vadym Stolár to help “sort out” matters and collect the cash; Stolár already had prior experience in the construction business, which consisted of creating construction pyramids. Stolár became the “watcher” for Kyiv, received budgets and appointments, and quickly found common ground with the Horovyis. They continued to control architecture, DABI and the Geocadastre, but now under Stolár’s “umbrella.”

Vadym Stolár

With the support of these shadow cardinals the brothers managed to reach an agreement with Volodymyr Groysman. Circles close to the Cabinet spoke of sums from three to five million dollars in monthly “kickbacks,” which comprised Groysman’s share in the system of issuing permitting documentation to builders.

The number of people who needed to “pay in” monthly increased, and with them the “rates” for market participants. The brazenness of the “watchers” grew to such an unprecedented scale that soon it became impossible to ignore. Finally, former Prosecutor General Yurii Lutsenko, during a meeting on reforming urban planning, named the decision-makers outright—Oleksii and Yurii Horovyi.

The command to “go after them” came from Petro Poroshenko, who, apparently, did not share in DABI’s proceeds with his inner circle. According to official prosecutorial estimates, corruption in the inspectorate drained 5-10 dollars per square [meter] of real estate under Yanukovych—and over 20 under Groysman.

Lutsenko stated plainly that “the DABI system today is one of the most corrupt in the country.” He recounted who had already been caught taking bribes and who had resigned to avoid being caught. “This list means that this is the top part of an existing full-scale mechanism for collecting tribute. What angers me most is not even the fact of an unbreakable system of corruption itself, but that, even compared to the unprecedented plundering of the country under Yanukovych, these bribes have increased.”

Unfortunately, after the meeting only a few DABI officials were ordered dismissed, which in no way solved the problem with the “watchers.” They put new people in the positions and continued to milk everyone who needed a construction permit. They determine the rates for extortion, and the kickbacks don’t go to the head of the State Inspectorate but much higher. After Lutsenko’s rebuke, the Horovyis even raised their “risk” prices and began charging an average of 60 dollars per square meter of construction.

Technically, the entry of documents into the DABI database is overseen by Olena Aikhel and Oksana Butkovska. Both are from Odesa and are friends of Tetyana Plachkova—the common-law wife of one of the Horovyi brothers, Oleksii. Builders endured and fed the corrupt structure for a long time, but several scandals erupted in Odesa, after which the director of the permitting procedures department, Nataliia Chekomasova (a close friend of Plachkova and Horovyi), came under an internal investigation. In the end, after a very long sick leave she returned to the DABI system.

Tetyana Plachkova

All participants in the pyramid still feel very secure, because Tetyana Plachkova, who is also the cashier for the scandalous capital developer Vadym Stolár, with his help became a member of parliament from the Opposition Platform — For Life party list. Tetyana is the connecting link between the Horovyi brothers and Vadym Stolár, who alone receives all permits “off the books,” i.e., without extra problems and with large discounts.

Recall that this troubled developer began his construction career with the high-profile “Elita-Center” scam, continued with a large-scale banking fraud involving Conversbank, then became notorious for schemes in the sale of fuel from the State Reserve, and now continues controversial developments in Kyiv. He has switched political affiliations many times and has been part of Our Ukraine and the Party of Regions, and this year acquired a parliamentary mandate through the Opposition Bloc — For Life. Thanks to ties with the Horovyis through Plachkova, he gained a leading position in Kyiv’s construction market, and though each of his developments is accompanied by endless scandals and protests, at the current level of corruption it is almost impossible to compete with him.

Political circles whisper that the Horovyis are trying, out of old habit, to deliver a few suitcases of money to the new authorities so they are left in their positions. Despite Volodymyr Zelensky’s demand to reboot the most corrupt structures, including the State Architectural Inspectorate, the Horovyis are intensively looking for a “new Groysman” and offer monthly receipts of several million dollars. Whether Zelensky’s team will withstand the financial pressure only time will tell. But the money they accumulated over previous years is so vast that removing them from the system will be extremely difficult.

Now the “greens” have a choice—to preserve the schemes and corrupt pyramids and get their “share,” or to actually remove the “watchers” who earn millions, eliminate the corruption, and let the construction industry develop properly and compete honestly based on price and quality. The choice is at once very simple and very difficult.