NABU has completed the investigation into an associate of MP Isayenko who gave a bribe to the head of DIAM

NABU has completed the investigation into an associate of MP Isayenko who gave a bribe to the head of DIAM

Very soon a full stop may be put on the case concerning the transfer of a bribe to the head of DIAM, Semen Kryvonos (in the collage at left).

NABU has completed the investigation into the involvement of Serhiy Samilyak (in the collage at right) in this crime. He presented himself as a “representative of Perfect Group” — a development company that de facto belongs to MP Dmytro Isayenko (in the collage at center). It is now established that the future defendant handed an official 119,7 thousand dollars so that he would assist in issuing a certificate of readiness for operation of the Terracotta residential complex in Kyiv. This investigation was initiated by DIAM officials, because they supposedly did not want to “get their hands dirty,” since the residential complex was not ready for people to move in. Notably, during covert investigative actions law enforcement recorded Samilyak boasting about his connections “in the higher echelons of power” and sharing stories about how he distributed money to officials of the state architectural and construction control body.

As KV has learned, the investigation into a representative of a Kyiv developer who tried to bribe the head of the State Architectural and Urban Planning Inspection (DIAM) was recently completed.

The investigation was conducted within criminal proceedings No. 52021000000000566, which the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) opened on 6 December 2021. The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office led the procedural supervision in this case. At present the case materials have been opened to the defense for review, after which they must be forwarded to the court for consideration on the merits. The main figure in the investigation may be held liable for an offense under part 4 of article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — giving an unlawful benefit to an official, if it was given to a person who holds a responsible position, or committed by prior conspiracy of a group of persons. The sanctions of this article provide for punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to 8 years.

According to the “Judicial Power of Ukraine” portal, the suspect is Serhiy Samilyak. Court rulings in the proceedings state that he identified himself as a representative of the development company Perfect Group.

According to court rulings, in December 2021 Serhiy Samilyak met with the acting director of the Department of Architectural and Construction Control (DABK) of DIAM (his name and surname are not indicated in open sources – KV) and told him that he wanted to give his “boss,” DIAM head Semen Kryvonos, an unlawful benefit in exchange for assistance in issuing a certificate for commissioning the Terracotta residential complex (Chernihivska St., 8, Darnytskyi district of Kyiv, developers — Perfect Group and Altis-Holding). At that time the bribe amount was announced: Samilyak proposed to give Kryvonos 120 thousand US dollars calculated as “2 dollars per 1 sq.m. of the complex” (total area of the complex – 60 thousand sq.m.).

Why the developer’s representative initially approached that official instead of contacting Semen Kryvonos directly is not specified in the court rulings. But it can be assumed that this was done so the acting director of DABK DIAM would arrange an appropriate meeting with his superior, at which all the “nuances” would be discussed. This version is supported by several facts.

First, during the mentioned meeting Serhiy Samilyak told the official that he understood such serious matters should be resolved personally by Semen Kryvonos. Second, during January 2022 there were at least two meetings involving Samilyak, Kryvonos, and the acting DABK director, during which details of the bribe transfer were discussed. In particular, it became known then that the unlawful benefit was connected to the fact that the Terracotta complex could not actually be commissioned, because the complex lacked electricity meters and a transformer substation. At the same time, the developer’s representative promised that these problems would be resolved later, after receiving the certificate of readiness of the buildings.

The bribe transfer took place on 1 February 2022 on the parking lot of one of Kyiv’s Ultramarket supermarkets (the exact address is not indicated in the court rulings – KV), in a Ford Kuga used by DIAM head Semen Kryvonos. Immediately after this, at the same location, Serhiy Samilyak was detained by NABU detectives. That same day the “representative of Perfect Group” was notified of suspicion of committing an offense under part 4 of article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

In the package containing the cash, NABU detectives found 119,7 thousand dollars. Court rulings, citing witness interviews, state that this “amount corresponds to the area” and that it “was not rounded” — meaning the size of the bribe was likely matched to the exact square footage of the Terracotta complex. At the same time, the rulings note another interesting detail — that this cash was “the second tranche.” However, the court materials do not specify when the first part of the unlawful benefit was given and what its size was.

On 3 February 2022 the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine applied a preventive measure against Serhiy Samilyak in the form of detention until 1 April 2022, with the possibility of bail in the amount of 2,2 million hryvnias. Judge Liudmyla Zadorozhna stipulated that if the suspect were released on bail he should be subject to a number of obligations: appear at NABU and the court on first summons, not change his place of residence without the permission of law enforcement, wear an electronic monitoring device, etc. Most likely Samilyak used his right to “buy his freedom,” since the state register of court decisions contains no data on an extension of the preventive measure.

Officially, Samilyak’s detention is connected to complaints filed by the above-mentioned DIAM officials. As early as 6 December of last year, immediately after the first conversation with the acting DABK director, the latter informed Semen Kryvonos about the offer of a bribe, and the head of the inspection appealed to NABU with a crime report. The Anti-Corruption Bureau began an investigation the same day.

During the pretrial investigation, the defense insisted that Serhiy Samilyak did not actually offer an unlawful benefit directly to Semen Kryvonos. They argued that all mentions of the DIAM head were made by the acting DABK director, who, according to the defense attorneys, is cooperating with NABU and is its “agent.” To support their position, Samilyak’s lawyers pointed to the results of covert investigative actions, which they believe did not record an offer of a bribe specifically to the head of DIAM.

A few interesting facts. As stated in the court rulings, NABU detectives during covert investigative actions (likely wiretapping — KV) recorded Samilyak telling DIAM officials that he had previously had to give “unlawful benefits to officials of the state architectural and construction control” to resolve “construction issues.”

He also said that the entire sum of the bribe offered to the DIAM head consisted of his personal funds. However, law enforcement noted that the size of this unlawful benefit does not correlate with Serhiy Samilyak’s official income — from 2010 to 2022 he earned only 114,5 thousand hryvnias. In addition, NABU recorded that Samilyak repeatedly told DIAM officials in conversations that he had “close relationships with officials of the Office of the President of Ukraine and with law enforcement officers,” and that he had “family ties with high-ranking officials of state bodies.”

It is worth noting that in February 2022, shortly after Samilyak’s detention, the expert community drew attention to some “inconsistencies” in this case. In particular, urban planning expert Heorhii Mohylnyi wrote on his Facebook page that during January developers twice submitted applications for commissioning three phases of the Terracotta construction, but DIAM refused twice, and it was only on 1 February, when the alleged bribe transfer took place, that the applications were submitted for the third time. In Mohylnyi’s view, the developers could have simply waited to commission their object.

“[So it turns out that they] offered a bribe, but then kept failing to bring it and kept submitting knowingly unpassable applications? Meanwhile the grounds for refusal to issue a certificate were simply that construction was not completed. Finish it and get the certificate. Moreover, on forums investors wrote that sales were aiming for spring, and there was no point in commissioning in winter, because in the middle of the heating season no one will turn on the heating and even repairs cannot be done until spring. At the same time, this construction is scheduled for inspection by DIAM only in July [2022], so the developer has time to calmly finish construction instead of putting on a ‘circus with horses,’ repeatedly submitting applications for an unfinished object,” Mohylnyi emphasized.

Notably, to date none of the residential buildings of the Terracotta complex has been officially commissioned — this is confirmed by data on all specialized websites covering construction and real estate.

About the construction of the Terracotta residential complex

On 29 October 2009 the Kyiv City Council by decision No. 564/2633 approved the transfer of a plot of 0,9835 ha on Chernihivska St., 8 (cadastral number – 8000000000:90:168:0008) to LLC Incolor Ukraine for lease to build an office-hotel residential complex with retail space and underground parking. The lease term was to be 10 years. On 5 March 2012 a land lease agreement was concluded between the city council and the company.

On 21 June 2018 the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture of the Kyiv City State Administration (KSCA) issued this company with urban planning conditions and restrictions (UPR) No. 514 for designing the construction at Chernihivska St., 8 of an office-hotel residential complex with retail space and underground parking.

According to that document, the company was allowed to design buildings on that plot no higher than 73,5 m (about 24–25 floors). The document also provided that if buildings over 50 m were designed, LLC Incolor Ukraine must obtain approval from Ukraerorukh and Ukraviatrans. All other initial data of the future complex — such as the number of buildings, apartments and parking spaces — were not specified in the UPR. It only stated that these design solutions must comply with the State Building Codes (DBN).

On 31 August 2018 the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate (DABI) issued LLC Incolor Ukraine permit No. IU113182432243 to build the office-hotel residential complex with retail space and underground parking on Chernihivska St., 8. The contractor for these works was listed as LLC Leading Construction Technologies (PTB). After that, over 2019–2020 years, amendments were made to this permit twice.

At present there is no information in open official sources about the declared technical and economic indicators of this complex — neither the initial ones nor those approved after amendments. The Unified State Electronic System in the construction sector, which publishes the relevant documents, does not operate in public access mode during martial law. However, KV still managed to establish some details.

Thus, according to the project passport published by the specialized website Nerukhomyi, the developers planned to erect 4 buildings with 652 apartments, a hotel and an underground parking lot on the plot, and the total built-up area was to be 6,4 thousand sq.m. The website of the law firm Nakaz, which analyzes the legality of residential construction, reports that permit No. IU113182432243 provided for 11-story buildings, but the developers allegedly decided to build buildings of 21–27 floors. Information about the real number of floors is confirmed by both the Nerukhomyi portal and the LUN website. According to Nerukhomyi, the complex was planned to have 678 apartments in total, and according to LUN — 672 apartments.

Note that in 2019 the NGO “European Law and Order” attempted to challenge in court the legality of the issuance of the above construction permit. During the administrative proceedings, the organization’s representatives pointed out that, according to the Kyiv Urban Planning Cadastre, the land plot on Chernihivska St., 8 belongs to the territory of public buildings and structures, which excludes residential development. In addition, the NGO noted that the detailed plan for the territory including this land was not approved, and this fact makes construction impossible. However, courts ultimately dismissed the organization’s claims.

According to the Nai Dengi portal, the NGO European Law and Order actively litigated to cancel construction permits issued to two well-known Kyiv developers — Perfect Group and its longtime partner Saga Development. The organization always lost such court disputes. Journalists suggested that the NGO actually initiated such cases to “legalize residential complexes” — that is, if someone later tried to challenge the legality of complexes built by these developers, they would have court decisions showing everything was “clean and transparent.” Journalists also noted that the head of this NGO, Oleksii Manishevskyi, in 2016–2019 served as director of LLC Oltisbud, which de facto belongs to Perfect Group’s sphere of influence.

Notably, the lease term for the plot on Chernihivska St., 8 expired on 5 March 2022. Soon the city authorities must decide whether to renew the agreement. On 17 June 2022 the KSCA deputy head for land issues, Petro Olenych, together with the Department of Land Resources of KSCA, registered in the Kyiv City Council a draft decision to renew the said agreement for another 5 years.

Main actors

According to the YouControl analytics system, Kyiv-based LLC Incolor Ukraine (the land lessee, client of the Terracotta construction) was registered in March 2009. The head of this company is listed as Yurii Shpakovskyi, the founder — the Cypriot firm Brownsboro Limited, and the ultimate beneficiary — resident of the urban-type settlement Kozyn, Obukhiv district, Kyiv region, Oleksandr Hlimbovskyi.

Kyiv-based LLC PTB (the general contractor of the Terracotta construction) was registered in September 2012. The head of this company is listed as Maksym Dem’ianenko, the founders — LLC KUA Trust Capital, JSC Closed-end mutual investment fund Garant Capital, and the Cypriot company Altis Development LTD. The ultimate beneficiaries of LLC PTB are Kyiv resident Anna Nahorna and the above-mentioned Oleksandr Hlimbovskyi.

YouControl classifies LLC Incolor Ukraine and LLC PTB as part of the so-called Altis-Holding group, which unites about seventy companies mostly engaged in construction and related works. The key person of this group is the above-mentioned businessman Oleksandr Hlimbovskyi. His daughter, Kateryna Hlimbovska, is currently a deputy of the IX convocation of the Kyiv City Council (elected from VO Batkivshchyna). Note that she is the wife of Roman Nasirov — the figure involved in several corruption scandals, former head of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine (2015–2017) and a member of parliament of the VIII convocation from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc.

According to Altis-Holding’s official website, only two residential complexes are being built under its brand — Terracotta and Parus (both in Kyiv). However, open-source information indicates these complexes are not fully projects of the holding and are implemented in cooperation with other developers. In addition, according to the LUN portal, Altis-Holding acted as the developer of the premium-class multifunctional Metropole complex built on Yuri Illienko St., 18-B in Kyiv. Companies from Altis-Holding’s orbit also previously participated actively in various public tenders for construction of infrastructure facilities, for which in just 2010–2017 they received about 3 billion hryvnias of public funds.

What role the development company Perfect Group (a sort of holding that unites a number of construction companies — KV) plays in implementing the Terracotta project is not available in open sources. Most likely it acts as one of the investors in these works, since there are no companies from its sphere of influence listed among the clients or contractors.

The actual owner of Perfect Group is Dmytro Isayenko — a former deputy minister of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services (2007–2015), a member of parliament of the current IX convocation (elected from the Opposition Platform — For Life party), who serves in parliament as secretary of the Committee on Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning. This development company’s portfolio includes about thirty residential complex projects, mainly in Kyiv and Kyiv region. As KV has repeatedly reported, construction of these objects is regularly accompanied by scandals.

There is no information in open sources confirming a connection between Dmytro Isayenko and the above-mentioned Serhiy Samilyak. Likely Samilyak either holds an informal position in one of Perfect Group’s companies, or he was brought in to deliver the bribe on a one-off basis.

Meanwhile, in his native Zakarpattia region Serhiy Samilyak is a fairly well-known figure. He heads the NGO Social-Democratic Congress of Christians of Ukraine, which in Zakarpattia is known for conflicts with many political parties, including Servant of the People and… the former OPZZh. In August 2019 Samilyak’s car was burned — he blamed his “political opponents.” In January 2020 he became nationally known when he went to a private gym in the city of Mukachevo (Zakarpattia region) with a sledgehammer. This followed a conflict with another gym-goer that involved physical force. Samilyak faced charges for inflicting minor bodily injuries, but the injured party refused to press charges and the criminal proceedings were closed.

Remember, DIAM was de jure created in December 2020, but this body (to which the state assigned a number of permitting functions in the construction sector) only began operating on 15 September 2021. This structure effectively replaced DABI, which officially ceased to exist in September 2021. Semen Kryvonos has headed DIAM since 19 May 2021. Experts and civic activists have repeatedly accused DIAM leadership and Kryvonos personally of corruption. For example, the above-mentioned Heorhii Mohylnyi accused officials of this inspection of “covering” the construction of the scandalous Warszawski Plus residential complex.

The post of director of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture of KSCA has been held by Oleksandr Svystunov since 1 November 2016. The Department of Land Resources of KSCA has been headed by Valentyna Pelykh since 29 June 2021 (she served as acting head of this structure since 2 April 2021). From 27 July 2018 to 1 April 2021 this department was led by the above-mentioned Petro Olenych, who since 2 April 2021 has served as deputy head of KSCA and oversees land and urban planning issues in Kyiv.

Author: Ivan Kulyk