"10 billion dollars out of the country": how Yuriy Holyk distanced himself from Reznychenko’s case and settled in Europe

Reznychenko is on trial for embezzling hundreds of millions from the roads of the “Great Construction” program, while his long-time associate Yuriy Holyk is not under suspicion and has long been abroad. It was through him that budgets, contractors, and funding volumes intersected, yet in the case he is only a “third party.” Today the ex-curator is systematically removing mentions of his schemes from the web.

We publish this article in full — to remind why the governor ended up on the defendant’s bench, and not the “watcher” over the billions.

So, the criminal case against long-time head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration Valentyn Reznychenko has reached the court. According to NABU’s report, he and several accomplices are accused of embezzling almost 400 million hryvnias during road repairs under the presidential program “Great Construction.”

That is, of course, good, although the court’s outcome invites a certain skepticism. But a more interesting question is why Yuriy Holyk, Reznychenko’s long-time closest aide, did not also take the defendant’s seat — the man who moved from Reznychenko’s advisor chair to being an advisor to Prime Minister Honcharuk, from where he was rapidly catapulted into supervising the “Great Construction”?

Such a career lift in no way severed the old ties between longtime associates Valentyn Reznychenko and Yuriy Holyk. On the contrary, the unofficial position of “watcher” over the “Great Construction” made it possible to direct significant funds to the Dnipropetrovsk region — funds for which Reznychenko is now being tried for embezzlement. But for some reason Holyk stood aside.

A check of court registries shows that Yuriy Holyk’s surname last surfaced in a criminal context back in September 2024 — then the former curator of the “Great Construction” tried to challenge the seizure of property imposed in case No. ¹ 52024000000000227.

True, that attempt to challenge the seizure failed — the court denied Yuriy Holyk’s lawyer’s request. However, it is not certain that the property remains seized — court registries are filled in extremely carelessly, so one cannot assert that there were no new complaints from Holyk or that they were rejected. But a more interesting status for Yuriy Holyk is that he is not an accused or even a suspect. He is a “third party.” That is — a seemingly random person who somehow found himself among the figures in the criminal case.

Be that as it may — seized property or not — Yuriy Holyk is now outside Ukraine and does not figure in the criminal case against his former boss Valentyn Reznychenko at all. Reznychenko is on trial for embezzling one and a half billion hryvnias allocated for road repairs in 2022.

Why Holyk is absent from the case is a mystery. Although it’s worth recalling that disgraced Servant of the People MP Geo Leros already in 2023, when NABU exposed the Holyk–Reznychenko scheme, literally said: “Despite the publicity about the scandalous asphalt contract for 1,5 billion hryvnias with Reznychenko’s and Holyk’s fitness trainer, which became known in November 2022, Zelensky’s authorities nevertheless continued to generously pay budget funds to the company ‘Budinvest Engineering,’ which it owns. Tens of millions of hryvnias were siphoned from the budget, even more, new contracts were concluded!”.

The gist of the case was that Budinvest Engineering LLC, which was mastering the road billions, was registered to Valentyn Reznychenko’s partner Yana Khlanta, who in reality was a fitness trainer.

Although at first glance it seems that Yuriy Holyk had no connection to Yana Khlanta or to Budinvest Engineering LLC, two things should not be forgotten. First — in 2022, when Budinvest Engineering surged to the top in terms of absorbing budget funds for road repairs, Yuriy Holyk was a key figure in the presidential program “Great Construction.” Although he held no official positions, it was no secret to anyone that Holyk supervised the program and that budget flows depended on him.

Nevertheless, Yuriy Holyk did not end up on the defendant’s bench alongside Valentyn Reznychenko. Although the preconditions were clearly there. And probably very serious. Because after NABU took an interest in Budinvest Engineering’s activities, Yuriy Holyk urgently requalified himself as a driver and fled Ukraine.

This is no joke — 20 April 2023 the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Volodymyr Orlov issued an order number 139/0/527-23 “On the departure from Ukraine of drivers.” Among them was the driver of the Charitable Organization “Songs Born in the ATO,” Yuriy Yuriyovych Holyk.

Holyk did not delay in taking the opportunity and safely left Ukraine, where he disappeared. His reasons were more than serious: besides the criminal case in which Valentyn Reznychenko surfaced and questions began to arise — why Yana Khlanta’s firm started receiving billions — there was also an equally scandalous statement by former Finance Minister Ihor Umansky about a cartel that monopolized road construction.

At that time Umansky claimed that this cartel had monopolized road construction, and tender proposals were rewritten so that other hopefuls simply could not win tenders.

Umansky’s words caused a scandal, the press began to investigate the issue, and among the overseers of the embezzlement schemes the name of Yuriy Holyk also surfaced. And not in a minor role. True, the scandal then subsided because a major war began, but when it became clear that the Russians’ blitzkrieg had failed, unpleasant questions started to arise about redirecting defense funds to road construction.

And it turned out that the scale of embezzlement of those funds reached 30–40%. And in total the “Great Construction” program received from 230 to 250 billion hryvnias. Which of that money amounted to exactly 10 billion dollars.

And the distribution of the money was supervised by none other than Yuriy Holyk. So his reasons to urgently requalify himself as a driver-accordionist were serious.

Almost three years have passed since the disappearance of the “Great Construction” curator Yuriy Holyk in an unknown direction. No efforts have been made to search for him or extradite him to Ukraine. The criminal proceeding in which his property was seized has hung in the depths of the High Anti-Corruption Court. But it is not being considered on the merits — the court is reviewing various motions from the defendants’ lawyers, who are clearly doing everything to derail it. Judging by events’ development, these efforts have a good chance of succeeding. However, Holyk himself is little concerned by all this — recall, he is listed in the case as a “third party.”

In this context, Valentyn Reznychenko’s position is interesting; his case has reached court. For some reason he removed his long-time associate Yuriy Holyk from under the blow. Although it is quite obvious that without Yuriy Holyk’s influence companies controlled by Valentyn Reznychenko could not have received not just one and a half billion in budget funds — they would not have received a single broken hryvnia.

But Valentyn Reznychenko decided not to betray Holyk. The question is — why? Could it be that Yuriy Holyk preserved his influence and Reznychenko hopes for his help in obtaining a lenient sentence or that he has even been promised an acquittal?

Well — we may have a chance to see that in the near future. If the trial, of course, is not dragged out for many years. At the same time it will become clear whether Yuriy Holyk has lost his influence in Ukraine or not.