Odesa “Reconstruction” Scheme: Secretary, Forewoman, and a Fictitious Director

Why limit the talents of a secretary to phone calls or a forewoman to mixing concrete, when you can simultaneously register them as sole proprietors and generously funnel tens of millions of hryvnias into rebuilding shell-damaged apartment buildings. Under the watchful eye of city officials, modest executive assistants suddenly became the chief architects of southern reconstruction, while the director, with touching naivety, tells investigators that his subordinates are merely “gaining valuable experience” without leaving their beloved coffee machine. Suspilne’s investigation reveals the secrets of Odesa’s “business success” of the secretary and the forewoman.

A secretary, a forewoman, and a former co-owner of one construction company nearly simultaneously registered as individual entrepreneurs — and soon received millions for reconstruction work in Odesa. At the same time, their boss is likely linked to an Odesa official responsible for the tenders that these sole proprietors won.

In a previous piece, Suspilne’s investigative team reported on relatives, friends, and acquaintances of heads of Odesa municipal enterprises Denis Kosmin and Oleksandr Saichuk, who became entrepreneurs and received tens of millions on construction tenders in Odesa.

This time, based on a criminal case, we established how employees of one Odesa enterprise that receives reconstruction funds became public contractors, who distributed the contracts among them, and which officials may have been behind this system.

Embezzlement of public funds: what the police are investigating

In August 2025 investigators from the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Odesa region opened an inquiry into the alleged embezzlement of public funds for repairs of residential buildings in Odesa, including those damaged by Russian shelling.

Seven enterprises are involved in the case; the court ruling characterizes them as affiliated.

Five of them are long-established companies that have been active in the public procurement market for years. Two — TOV “NORT TEK+” and TOV “Stroy-Invest-Group-7” — are relatively new players that drew the most attention from investigators.

Law enforcement found that TOV “NORT TEK+” had no employees, and its director and official owner Ihor Rospytko had no idea he was supposedly running the firm. He now appears in the case as a witness.

No such remarks were made about TOV “Stroy-Invest-Group-7.” At the same time, the criminal case materials mention two female entrepreneurs who, Suspilne’s investigative team found, work at that company. They registered as sole proprietors and also began to win reconstruction tenders in Odesa.

In the court rulings the entrepreneurs’ names are redacted. The editorial team identified who they are and also found another entrepreneur connected to the company who is not mentioned in the rulings.

From small repairs to 114 million

TOV “Stroy-Invest-Group-7” mostly handled small orders until 2024, but since then it has rapidly grown its share of public contracts.

Since 2024 the company has received contracts worth 114 million hryvnias. The largest of these concern the reconstruction of residential buildings in Odesa damaged by shelling. In particular, “Stroy-Invest-Group-7” is restoring an apartment building on Otamana Holovatoho Street, 92 — for more than 21 million hryvnias.

Employees of “Stroy-Invest-Group-7” are restoring the building on Shevchenka, 8-V in Odesa. Photo: Odesa City Council

Suspilne’s investigative team found that employees of “Stroy-Invest-Group-7” who nearly simultaneously became entrepreneurs were also involved in reconstruction in Odesa and began receiving contracts from the Department of Municipal Services of Odesa City Council.

One of them is Valentyna Parpulanska, who registered as a sole proprietor at the end of 2024.

Valentyna Parpulanska appears in the criminal case about embezzlement on construction projects in Odesa. Photo from her social networks

Overall, she received eight contracts totaling almost 8 million hryvnias. Two of them concern the restoration of buildings damaged by Russia.

In particular, Parpulanska was to restore a building on Pastera Street, 52 in Odesa for 1,2 million hryvnias. For 1,1 million she was to restore a building on Anatry Lane, 13/1 until 2027.

Although on 9 September 2026 the woman ceased her entrepreneurial activity, according to Prozorro data the contract for the Anatry Street reconstruction is still active. According to the Spending portal of public funds usage, FOP Parpulanska has not received funds for that project. But overall, in 2025 she was paid more than 5,5 million hryvnias for repairs of six buildings in Odesa.

Despite her entrepreneurial activity (at least on paper), Parpulanska continued to work at “Stroy-Invest-Group-7.” In procurements where the company participated, she was repeatedly listed as the company’s official contact person. Suspilne’s investigation also found that within the company Parpulanska likely worked as an assistant and the director’s secretary — that is how her number was listed in telephone directories.

Valentyna Parpulanska represented the interests of “Stroy-Invest-Group-7” in public procurements. Screenshot of the procurement for the reconstruction of the building on Shevchenka, 8-V from Prozorro as of 17 December 2025.

We tried to contact Valentyna Parpulanska by phone, but she did not answer. The editorial team then sent her questions by messenger about completed and active reconstruction contracts, circumstances of registering as a sole proprietor, construction experience, employees, combining entrepreneurial activity with work at “Stroy-Invest-Group-7,” and her position on the criminal proceedings. At the time of publication we had not received a response.

Another company employee mentioned in the criminal case is Maryna Taranenko. From documents “Stroy-Invest-Group-7” submitted for public procurements, we learned that Taranenko worked in the company as a works executor.

Maryna Taranenko worked as a forewoman at “Stroy-Invest-Group-7.” Company documents published during participation in public procurements in February 2025 confirm this. Screenshot from Prozorro

Like Parpulanska, Taranenko registered as a sole proprietor at the end of 2024. Since then she has signed 12 agreements with the Department of Municipal Services of Odesa City Council worth more than 10 million hryvnias.

Among them are two contracts to restore buildings damaged by Russian aggression: projects on Shevchenka Avenue, 8/3 and in Hospitalnyi Lane, 2. The contract values are 1,3 and 1,2 million hryvnias respectively.

One more similarity with Parpulanska — both ceased entrepreneurial activity on the same day, 9 September 2026.

Maryna Taranenko, according to documents, is involved in reconstruction in Odesa. Photo from her social networks

Within the criminal case, investigators are checking at least one of Taranenko’s construction contracts. According to the investigation, volumes of work and the cost of equipment and building materials may have been inflated during the repair. Investigators believe budget funds were misappropriated by entering false data into acts of completed work.

In a phone conversation with a Suspilne investigative reporter, Maryna Taranenko refused to answer questions about her activity as a sole proprietor, the execution of public contracts, and the mention of her name in the criminal case materials.

Suspilne’s investigative team identified another entrepreneur connected to “Stroy-Invest-Group-7” who received reconstruction contracts: Serhii Vasalantiev — co-owner of the company in 2018–2023.

Unlike Parpulanska and Taranenko, we did not find mentions of Vasalantiev in the court rulings in the “Odesa FOPs” case. However, his history shows similar signs: at the end of 2024 he registered as a sole proprietor and then began receiving contracts from the Department of Municipal Services of Odesa City Council.

To date, Vasalantiev has signed seven agreements totaling more than eight million hryvnias. One concerns reconstruction after Russian attacks of an apartment building on Oleksandra Kutuzakiia Street, 62. That contract is worth more than a million hryvnias, and the entrepreneur must complete the work by 2027.

We found that despite leaving the list of owners of “Stroy-Invest-Group-7” in 2023, Vasalantiev did not sever his ties with the company. He was the person who, several times in 2025, commented on the progress of work at a site the firm was restoring.

Serhii Vasalantiev talks about the restoration of the building on Shevchenka Avenue, 8-V, which has been repeatedly damaged by Russian shelling and whose reconstruction contract was awarded to TOV “Stroy-Invest-Group-7.” August 2025. Telegram channel of Odesa City Council

In a comment to Suspilne, Serhii Vasalantiev said he now works only as an entrepreneur.

“I only work as an FOP — that’s it,” he said.

When a journalist asked about a video in which Vasalantiev comments on works at “Stroy-Invest-Group-7” sites, he was surprised the editorial team had seen them and explained he did it because he was “asked to.”

After questions about the criminal case and whether the entrepreneur has his own workers and equipment, Vasalantiev refused to answer.

Odesa investigators’ probe also involves the accountant of “Stroy-Invest-Group-7.” According to the investigation, she may have handled the financial and tax reporting for some of the FOPs involved in the scheme and carried out banking operations with public funds that were credited to their accounts.

During the criminal investigation, law enforcement searched her workplace and seized a laptop.

Company documents published during procurements show that from 2020 to February 2025 the accountant of TOV “Stroy-Invest-Group-7” was Odesa resident Larysa Riabova.

In conversation with a Suspilne investigative reporter, the woman said she still works at the company but refused to comment on the criminal case.

Scheme of splitting business into sole proprietors

We asked Vladyslava Rudyka, a lawyer and head of the “Transparent and Accountable Reconstruction” direction at the Anti-Corruption Center “Mezha,” why companies participating in tenders might find it profitable to additionally register their employees as sole proprietors and win contracts under their names.

She explains that companies are typically VAT payers, and all issued and received tax invoices must be registered in the Unified Register of Tax Invoices.

“For honest businesses these rules are clear and they comply. But some businesses, in order to siphon funds obtained legally or illegally and to evade taxation, use so-called tax optimization schemes,” explains Vladyslava Rudyka.

According to the lawyer, one such scheme is splitting the business among several sole proprietors on the simplified tax system without VAT and with a defined annual income limit. Rudyka says this reduces tax burden and avoids registering tax invoices — which complicates control over the supply chain of works, goods, and services.

Among signs that may indicate a group of entrepreneurs are connected, Vladyslava Rudyka lists shared employees and equipment, accounts at the same banks, bookkeeping handled by one person, identical document templates, and filing reports from a single IP address.

The lawyer believes law enforcement could verify the alleged siphoning of funds by obtaining in the criminal case access to the entrepreneurs’ client-bank records. That would reveal whether the FOPs withdrew received funds in cash or transferred them to accounts of related persons who were not involved in performing the contracts.

Who might be behind the scheme

According to YouControl, TOV “Stroy-Invest-Group-7” was founded in 2018 in Odesa by Pavlo Zavala and Dmytro Romaniuk. Today the sole owner and director of the company is Romaniuk.

Examining his biography, we found signs of a possible informal link between the businessman and Odesa official Artem Zakharov, who until May 2026 served as deputy director of the Department of Municipal Services of Odesa City Council. This link is suggested, among other things, by how Romaniuk’s number was saved in people’s phones.

Users labeled Dmytro Romaniuk’s phone number as “Zakharov’s contractor.” Screenshot from an app that identifies phone number owners

Such data alone do not prove a connection between Romaniuk and Zakharov, but they raised questions.

In a comment to Suspilne’s investigative team, Danylo Romaniuk said some of his company’s employees work part-time and may simultaneously have their own entrepreneurial activities.

“Half my employees work half-time. And what else they do… They are builders, they can do anything,” Romaniuk said.

Asked why, for example, the company’s secretary Valentyna Parpulanska became an entrepreneur and began performing construction contracts, he replied that employees are gaining experience and improving their qualifications.

He said he did not advise his subordinates to register as sole proprietors because he “does his own job.”

Romaniuk also confirmed he knows former deputy director of the Department of Municipal Services Artem Zakharov, but described their relationship as professional. He denied that Zakharov could have lobbied for the interests of “Stroy-Invest-Group-7” or entrepreneurs connected to the company.

He also denied allegations of inflated material costs or work volumes. According to him, the client’s specialists inspect completed works and payment is made only after verification.

He believes law enforcement does not sufficiently understand the specifics of construction work and should inspect the sites before drawing conclusions.

“Today you finish a site, sign the contract, a technical inspector from the client comes, they check, and then you get paid. There is an expertise. Are their specialists bad? They won’t let you get away with a single unnecessary centimeter. Where do these myths come from, I don’t know. It just prevents work. […] Such (overstating volumes of work and material costs — Ed.) is impossible a priori, because the technical inspector will not sign any extra centimeter,” Romaniuk said.

Who Zakharov is and his possible link to Trukhanov’s late associate

The court rulings in this case also describe municipal officials who may have coordinated the process.

They note that a deputy director of the Department of Municipal Services of Odesa City Council who uses a Volvo XC90 may be involved in the case. The car of that make and model was declared by the aforementioned Artem Zakharov.

As Suspilne reported, in May 2026 Zakharov headed the municipal enterprise “City Heat Supply of Odesa.” At the same time it became known he had been dismissed from his deputy director position at the Department of Municipal Services.

According to the investigation, while working at the department the official may have acted on instructions from another person named in the case, whose name could not be established from available court rulings. Investigators believe this person engaged controlled FOPs and officials of municipal enterprises.

In February 2026 police searched Zakharov’s residence. They seized his mobile phone and notebooks.

Artem Zakharov is likely one of the figures in the “Odesa FOPs” case. Suspilne Odesa

Also involved in the “Odesa FOPs” case is the now-deceased former Odesa city council deputy from the Trust the Deeds party and a friend of former Odesa mayor Hennadii Trukhanov, Oleksandr Ivanytskyi.

In February 2026 investigators searched Ivanytskyi’s residence and seized his mobile phone as part of the case.

In April Oleksandr Ivanytskyi was found dead in his car. Police investigated the possibility of suicide.

According to the investigation’s version in the case of alleged embezzlement of reconstruction funds, Ivanytskyi may have effectively controlled the process of forming the city budget in the housing and communal services sphere, and covertly lobbied for the appointment of loyal and controllable people to key positions. Investigators believe the embezzlement scheme could have operated through these people.

The name of former deputy of the Department of Municipal Services Zakharov was repeatedly saved in contacts with notes linking him to Ivanytskyi. Odesa media also reported on that connection.

Users labeled Artem Zakharov’s number as a person from Ivanytskyi. Screenshot from an app that identifies phone number owners

In a phone conversation with a Suspilne investigative reporter, Artem Zakharov called the allegations about him in the criminal case “slander.” He said he is ready to comment on the case after a decision is made or specific circumstances are proven.

“Let’s do this: when there is some decision in this case or something is proven, I will comment. What am I going to comment on now?” Zakharov said.

During the conversation he agreed to receive questions via messenger and consider them. The editorial team sent nine questions, including about the criminal case, direct contracts with TOV “NORT TEK+,” FOPs connected to “Stroy-Invest-Group-7,” and possible links between Zakharov and Oleksandr Ivanytskyi.

The next day Zakharov replied in messenger that after reviewing questions 1–7 he “seemed willing” to answer — until he saw further questions about his connection to Ivanytskyi.

The editorial team received no answers to any of the questions sent.

Regarding the criminal case mentioned in our article, the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Odesa region informed Suspilne’s investigative team in response to a request that the investigation is ongoing. So far no one has been charged in this case.

Authors: Hanna Kalaur, Myroslava Prymak