121 a million in the contractor’s pocket: how a company close to Yurii Holyk laundered budget funds on the roads of Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions

121 a million in a contractor’s pocket: how a company close to Yuriy Holik laundered budget funds for roads in Kyiv region and Zhytomyr region

121 million UAH in losses on road repairs in Kyiv and Zhytomyr oblasts—revealed a contractor who worked for Yuriy Holik, who already has criminal proceedings and fled to the EU.

Announcement of suspicion against the director of a private enterprise for embezzling budget funds allocated for road repairs, committed by a group of persons in a particularly large amount, pursuant to part 5 of article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

According to investigative materials, in the period 2018-2020 years, the private enterprise, under the conditions of contracts concluded with the State Agency of Automobile Roads of Kyiv and Zhytomyr oblasts, carried out repair works on sections of roads in Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions.

Experts established that the cost of repair works that cannot be put into operation amounts to over 121 million UAH, and the enterprise improperly received this amount from the budget.

02.03.2023, at the prosecutor’s request, a preventative measure in the form of detention with an alternative of a bail in the amount of 6 million hryvnias was chosen by the investigative judge of the Holosiivskyi District Court of Kyiv.

The investigation in the criminal proceedings continues. All participants in the illegal scheme are being identified.

Who is Yuriy Holik?

Honored treasuries Yuriy Holik, Oleksiy Chernyshov, and Kyrylo Tymoshenko have become the heroes of memes, and also received well-deserved stickers in one of the Telegram channels.

They were developed by the Telegram channel “Transmisia.” The channel’s author said he wrote many posts about “siphoning” on the “Great Construction,” including about the “schemes” of the head of the Ministry for Communities and Territories Oleksiy Chernyshov, the deputy head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Tymoshenko, his advisor Yuriy Holik, and the head of Ukravtodor Oleksandr Kubrakov.

And I am glad that you followed my long reads so closely. So, I have a surprise for you — a sticker pack about the “schemes” of this trio! Use them and have fun, says the message.

How the Great Construction works: Yuriy Holik, Oleksiy Chernyshov, Kubrakov, and Kyrylo Tymoshenko

Recall that the presidential program “Great Construction,” despite its grand plan to modernize and renovate Ukraine’s infrastructure, may become monuments of corruption. The revelations from former adviser to the head of the Office of the President Ihor Umanovskyi about theft from the “covid fund” and “pork-barrel” spending on the “Great Construction” cast a shadow on many people in the president’s circle responsible for the program.

Wars over siphoning of streams in the president’s inner circle undermine his rating

The scandal around the siphoning of funds from the “Great Construction” shows that the head of the Ministry for Communities and Territories Oleksiy Chernyshov is deceiving not only the public but also the president Volodymyr Zelensky himself.

This is stated in a blog on Regionews.ua by expert Yuriy Havrilyechko, commenting on the scandalous statement by former adviser to the head of the Office of the President Ihor Umanovskyi about schemes in the “Great Construction.”

According to him, the ruling vertical that controls the “Great Construction” is on everyone’s minds. In June this year, a Coordinating Council for the “Great Construction” was created, chaired by deputy head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Tymoshenko. Among others, it included: Minister of Development of Communities and Territories Oleksiy Chernyshov, Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy, Tymoshenko’s assistant Yuriy Holik, adviser to the head of the Office of the President Mykhailo Podolyak.

At the same time, Havrilyechko believes that unofficial coordinators of the “Great Construction” became Tymoshenko and Podolyak, directly subordinate to Yermak.

“Obviously, this exacerbated, shall we say, the ‘mutual dislike’ between Yermak/Podolyak and Tymoshenko,” writes the expert.

This situation clearly benefited Chernyshov, who effectively became the main spokesperson for the “Great Construction” and one of its main beneficiaries. Chernyshov is responsible for social facilities (schools, kindergartens, hospitals), through which he influences regional elites. And this is while the project’s situation for him is close to a failure. The Ministry for Communities reports 89% readiness of Great Construction objects, but media analyzed data from the program’s official site and report that overall readiness is only 64%.

Havrilyechko also added that “Oleksiy Chernyshov, who answers directly to Yermak, wants to turn his failure with the Great Construction into access to even more streams. After all, the scandal that surfaced is a war within the vertical, where Yermak, Podolyak, Chernyshov, and the company are trying to reduce Tymoshenko, Holik, and Kubrakov’s influence.”

All these wars over schemes and siphoning streams among groups of influence in the president’s inner circle not only sink the Great Construction project and the Covid fund money into asphalt, but mislead the President and undermine his rating. It will be interesting to see what conclusions the president draws? Especially considering that Chernyshov has already effectively blocked another presidential initiative—the urban planning reform… We are waiting for the Parliament to vote quickly on the interpellation bill? — concluded Havrilyechko.

Recall that previously former adviser to the head of the Office of the President Ihor Umanovskyi stated that 40% of the funds allocated for the project “Great Construction” were stolen. The amount stolen, according to him, is almost equal to 35 billion hryvnias allocated for road construction from the Covid fund.

Author: Oleksandr Bondar