At the end of 2023, the SBI reported that a Lviv businessman tried to bribe their employee with $500 thousand. As it turned out, we are talking about businessman Igor Grinkevich, whose construction companies appear in criminal cases regarding purchases by the Ministry of Defense for the needs of the army.
Schemes for the APU
On December 29, 2023, the State Bureau of Investigation reported that one of the heads of the SBI departments was offered a bribe. A Lvov businessman contacted a Bureau employee and promised 500 thousand dollars to return the seized property to him. The man was detained right in the cafe, where, apparently, the meeting took place. The money was counted there - all 500 thousand dollars.
The Lviv businessman's name is Igor Grinkevich. He and his family own various businesses that regularly participate in Department of Defense tenders. At the end of December, the Bureau, reporting that a businessman tried to give a bribe, also announced the initiation of a criminal case into the theft of money from the purchase of uniforms for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“During the investigation, it was established that enterprises controlled by the businessman, which were previously engaged in construction and did not have adequate production, warehouse and other facilities for the production and storage of clothing for the needs of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, were involved in the execution of defense orders. This led to damage to the budget, according to preliminary estimates, of UAH 1,2 billion and, accordingly, a disruption in supplies,” – said in the press release of the State Bureau of Investigation.
We are talking about three companies associated with the Grinkevich family - TRADE LINES RETAIL LLC, CITIGRAD Construction Company LLC и "Construction Alliance MONTAZHPROEKT". The SBI established that the businessman’s companies won 23 tenders from the Ministry of Defense for a total of 1,5 billion hryvnia. Six contracts were not fully implemented, but seven treaties The businessman’s company supplied the goods in small quantities, although they received full money for it. More eight treaties were completed with a delay of 3 to 5 months. The price of the goods, according to the investigation, was inflated. The Bureau previously estimated the damage to the state at 1 billion hryvnia.
It is noteworthy that all three companies that were previously engaged in construction suddenly added a new type of activity in 2023 - trade in textile goods, or shoes and clothing. How did the Ministry of Defense get access to tenders for the purchase of clothing for the army? construction companies, which had neither production capacity nor documented experience, is unknown. Journalists claim that companies purchased clothes in Turkey using 40% of the government money they received, and 60% was taken into the shadows. Law enforcement officials have not yet officially confirmed this information.
In addition to tenders for army uniforms, the Grinkevich family company LLC "TRADE LINES RETAIL" won the auction of the Ministry of Defense for the purchase of products for the Armed Forces of Ukraine for almost half a million hryvnia. The tender started in November, and in May 2023, the company’s type of activity and beneficiaries changed dramatically - instead of the wife and daughter of Igor Grinkevich, a certain Vladimir Timkiv became the final owner.
Grinkevich's enterprises have been involved in scandals before. One of them occurred in 2021, when the company Stroitelny Alliance Montazhproekt, owned by the son of Igor Grinkevich, received a subcontract for the construction of the Shirokiy Lan military training ground in the Nikolaev region. The company undertook not to engage in further subcontracting, but in the end several gasket companies took part in the work, after which the price for the work fell by 326 thousand hryvnia.
In addition, all three companies that won the bid to supply uniforms to the Armed Forces of Ukraine are already involved in a criminal case. Back in October 2022, the Unified Register of Court Decisions published a petition from a National Police investigator, who reported that three companies of Grinkevich developed a fraudulent scheme to seize funds from the purchase of body armor and helmets for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“In the future, funds received from illegal activities will be legalized through the acquisition of property in Ukraine and the countries of the European Union,” - it is said in the register.
Igor Grinkevich was charged with suspicion of giving a bribe; he is sitting in a pre-trial detention center with the possibility of release on bail of half a million hryvnia. He faces up to 8 years in prison. It is still unknown whether he will be charged with the fact of trading with the Ministry of Defense.
Reaction from the Ministry
The Ministry of Defense has not yet issued extended comments regarding the latest procurement scandal. On January 8, Minister Rustem Umerov said that “the arrests you see are changes.”
“The internal audit of the Ministry of Defense and the updated General Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defense have started working. They have already identified many violations - in the last 4 months, more than 10 billion violations committed previously. We react strictly to all cases. We work closely with law enforcement officers and special services,” – he wrote on his Facebook.
On January 9, his deputy Vitaly Polovenko, in response to a question about the situation with the Grinkevichs, stated that all contracts concluded with his companies had been terminated. Let us note that the tender for the purchase of products for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, concluded with the businessman’s company on December 28, has not yet been terminated, at least in the Prozorro system there is no talk of this.
It is also still unknown who exactly from the Ministry of Defense helped Grinkevich’s companies win the auction and entered into contracts with them, which were then not fulfilled. SBI investigators reported that they are checking the involvement of ex-MoD officials. Let us note that today two former employees of the Ministry of Defense - Vyacheslav Shapovalov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky are suspected of corruption related to procurement for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is still unknown whether they are connected, among other things, with Grinkevich’s companies.
Public scandal
The SBI's information that Igor Grinkevich tried to give a law enforcement officer half a million dollars in bribes aroused resonance and interest in the businessman's family. Later, journalists reported that Grinkevich’s family offered money to remove the article about Shved. By the way, Olga Shved and her mother Svetlana Grinkevich own a company that won the tender of the Ministry of Defense for the purchase of products for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Roman Grinkevich, the son of a businessman, owns the company Construction Alliance MONTAZHPROEKT, which also participated in the MO auction and was involved in the Shirlan construction scandal.
The Grinkevich family also founded the BO “Charitable Foundation “HOPE.UA”, which entered into a memorandum of cooperation with the Lviv Regional Council and the OVA. According to the agreement, Grinkevich’s organization and the Lviv OVA must create a regional center for the social rehabilitation of children. The head of the OVA, Maxim Kozitsky, reacting to the scandal surrounding the Grinkevichs, said that the HOPE.UA fund did not raise any questions for him.
“The project is really needed in the current conditions. Restoration and repair work was to be financed 70% by “HOPE.UA”, by attracting funds from foreign donors, and 30% by LOVA, by attracting funds from the regional budget,” - he noted.
Kozitsky added that the foundation applied for a grant from the Netherlands for $4 million, but donor funding provides for complete control over finances. If it turns out that Grinkevich’s foundation is involved in fraudulent schemes, Kozitsky promises to tear up the memorandum.
