The scandal with Lviv businessman Igor Hrynkevich, who is called one of the largest suppliers of the Ministry of Defense, is gaining momentum. On December 29, he was detained for trying to bribe one of the heads of the DBR with a bribe of 500,000 dollars.
This was reported by the State Bureau of Investigation and the Prosecutor General's Office.
On January 11, the SBI already announced that the property of the family and companies controlled by Hrynkevich had been seized. The Ministry of Defense and the Lviv Regional Administration are terminating contracts with the family's companies, and the businessman's wife even resigned from the university.
Investigators say that the businessman allegedly offered a bribe for help in returning to him property seized from companies under his control during the investigation of a criminal case.
A few months ago, the SBI began an investigation into the fact of "equipment with the procurement of clothes and underwear for the Armed Forces", which, according to the investigation, was to be supplied by a Lviv businessman.
Companies controlled by him allegedly won 23 tenders worth 1.5 billion hryvnias for the supply of clothing to the Ministry of Defense.
The investigation claims that defense orders were to be carried out by companies that were previously engaged in construction. And they did not have adequate production, warehouse and other facilities to manufacture and store things for the needs of the Ministry of Defense.
As a result, six contracts were not fulfilled in full, and for at least seven, the goods were delivered to the warehouses of military units only in small quantities, "but they received state funds for the full fulfillment of obligations", say the investigators.
The law enforcement officers also indicate that eight contracts were executed 3 to 5 months late.
According to preliminary estimates, the SBI says, this led to a supply disruption and budget losses of 1.2 billion hryvnias.
In addition, the prices of goods for the Ministry of Defense were inflated, say the security forces.
"The involvement of former officials of the Ministry of Defense, who did not take any legal actions to ensure the fulfillment or termination of contracts, is being investigated," the SBI says.
According to preliminary estimates, the amount of losses due to high prices may reach more than 1 billion hryvnias.
The investigation continues, and the businessman allegedly tried to get back the property that was seized during the investigation for $500,000, for which he was arrested.
On December 30, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv sent Hrynkevich to custody with the possibility of a bail of more than 429 million hryvnias. He still hasn't brought it in.
Hrynkevich was informed of the suspicion under part 3 of Art. 369 of the Criminal Code – offering, promising or providing an illegal benefit to an official.
For this, he can face up to eight years in prison.
And this is not yet the results of the SBI investigation and suspicions of possible "devices" with purchases for the Ministry of Defense.
But journalist Tetyana Nikolayenko from the public anti-corruption council of the Ministry of Defense points out that none of the companies have been registered against Ihor Hrynkevich himself. The wife and daughter are out of the beneficiaries, and one of the companies is registered only to the son.
On January 11, the SBI reported that all the property of the family and companies under its control had been seized.
The SBI also specified that searches were conducted at the businessmen's residence and work addresses, as well as at the addresses of directors and offices and companies controlled by him.
"In order to ensure compensation for the damages caused, real estate, premium vehicles owned by the businessman's family, as well as property and accounts of companies under his control were seized," the statement said.
The investigators also came to the conclusion that all products supplied by Hrynkevich's companies for the needs of the MoU in 2023 do not meet the quality characteristics and cannot be used by servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Reaction of the Ministry of Defense
After the scandals, the ministry decided to terminate agreements with companies related to the Hrynkevichs, which are one of their biggest suppliers.
"What is the position of the Ministry of Defense regarding the "Grynkevich case"? The position is as follows: after the publications in the mass media, the Ministry of Defense immediately made a decision to terminate the contracts that were previously concluded," said Deputy Minister of Defense Vitaly Polovenko at a press conference in "Interfax-Ukraine".
Later, he specified that the ministry had one contract left with Hrynkevich's company. This is an agreement on military food in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, it is valid from January 1 to April 1, 2024.
"This was the last agreement concluded by the department of resource provision, which is now being disbanded. The agreement was concluded based on the results of the tender conducted on Prozoro - before we became aware of the arrests and detentions," said Pavlenko.
He added that the ministry has started thorough and separate official inspections of tenders, contracts and the quality of services.
Feeding the military is a priority, says Pavlenko. But "if there are any reasons to terminate this last contract early, we will do so immediately."
Journalists who investigated Hrynkevich's activities write that these may not be all of the businessman's scandals.
Previously, there were stories about the unfinished construction of a military unit in Zhytomyr Oblast and work at the Shiroky Lan training ground in the Mykolaiv region.
Hrynkevich's companies won Ministry of Defense tenders for food, and their charitable foundation Hope.ua says it builds social housing for displaced people.
"Christ was born". How the detention took place
The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv recently published a decision on the arrest of a businessman for attempting to bribe a representative of the State Bureau of Investigation - $500,000. Judging by the description of the case and the coincidence of all the details, most likely it is about Ihor Grynkevich, who was detained on the eve of the new year.
There are interesting details in the document. For this amount, the businessman allegedly wanted the SBI to help return the goods seized at customs - sets of underwear, combat shirts, T-shirts. All these things were intended for the military.
Somehow the businessman, who is referred to as Person 8 in the text of the court decision, found out about the criminal case against his companies and started communicating with a representative of the State Security Bureau - with the deputy head of the department's main investigative department.
The entrepreneur sent him a message on Signal and suggested a meeting, referring to mutual friends. At the gas station on Sevastopol Square in Kyiv, he offered the investigator a bribe of $500,000 for help with the seized goods.
After this meeting, the SBI representative submitted a report on the commission of a crime and recorded all correspondence with the businessman, refusing to talk to him on the phone.
On December 25, the entrepreneur sent a message to the investigator: "Christ was born. when will I see you?” They agreed to meet at a restaurant near the train station. Law enforcement officers were waiting there. The businessman was detained while handing over the bribe.
The Lviv authorities are terminating contracts
People who previously worked with him express their position regarding the scandal with Hrynkevich.
In media publications, you can often see a photo where Hrynkevich is sitting at a large table with the head of the Lviv OVA, Maksym Kozytskyi, and the head of the Lviv Regional Council, Yury Kholod.
They sign a memorandum of cooperation with the Grynkevich Hope.ua charitable foundation, which is to turn the Zhuravnev psychoneurological boarding school into a regional center for social rehabilitation of children with PTSD or war trauma.
The restoration and repair was to be financed by the Grynkevych fund for 70% (having received a grant for this from the Netherlands for 4 million euros), the rest was to be financed by Lviv OVA.
At first, Kozytskyi said that he had "no complaints" against this "big and well-known" charitable organization.
However, on January 9, the head of the region and the head of the regional council Yuriy Kholod announced that they had torn up the memorandum on the repair of the facility in Zhuravnoi by the Grynkevych Foundation. Kozytskyi admitted that now there will be no money from the Netherlands and the project will fail.
"Tenders with Hrynkevich's companies will be reviewed and terminated!" - Kozytskyi wrote late in the evening on January 9.
"Hrynkevich turned out to be dishonest with his word and hand," Kozytskyi admitted.
The head of OVA says that the regional government started cooperation with the businessman back in 2012.
Until now, two criminal proceedings have been instituted against two of the businessman's companies. In one case, writes Kozytskyi, "the works that were not done were activated, in the other - the equipment was not delivered in full."
Last summer, based on the lawsuit of the Lviv Regional State Administration, the Criminal Court of Cassation decided to collect material damages of over 118,000 hryvnias from Grynkevych's companies, Kozytskyi says.
As for another criminal proceeding, the administration reimbursed 721,000 hryvnias.
All this was before Kozytskyi headed the administration, he says. Kozytsky himself became the head of the region in 2020, and before that he was engaged in business in the field of energy.
But he himself signed three new agreements with Hrynkevich while in office.
They concerned long-building schools that could not be built for years. The previous contractor did not complete the work, and thanks to Hrynkevich's company, says Kozytskyi, children can soon start studying in one of the schools.
Another agreement concerns the construction of a "citizen safety center" in the village of Skhidnytsia, a balneological resort in the mountains of Lviv region.
The reaction of the Hrynkevichs
The son of a businessman, Roman Hrynkevich, said in an Instagram post that managed to get the attention of several media outlets that he was "sure" that his family's activities "took place in accordance with the current legislation."
"We (the editors) will definitely not make excuses, spread dirt, look for compromising material or create it," Hrynkevich Jr. wrote.
The son of the arrested businessman believes that the scandal surrounding the family was ordered, and allegedly even knows the names of the "customers" and "beneficiaries".
He is sure that the law enforcement officers, as well as in the Ministry of Defense itself, "will understand everything, using official data."
Roman Hrynkevich says that the families "have something to answer", but they will do it "exclusively in a legal way, reasoned and clearly".
There has been no reaction from other family members yet.
However, late in the evening on January 9, the Grynkevich charitable foundation made its position public.
"Due to increased attention to the fund and information spreading on the Internet, we are forced to make a premature comment," the fund said.
The fund expressed readiness for inspections to show "absolute transparency of work."
"We have more than 500 acts of acceptance and handover, dozens of acknowledgments and thousands of photos of reports," the foundation said and described in detail what was handed over and to whom.
The fund urged to remember that no body or person in Ukraine can replace the investigation and the court.
A life of luxury?
The scandals surrounding businessman Ihor Hrynkevich are spiced up by the luxurious lifestyle of his children, in particular daughter Olga, which the media wrote about back in the summer.
Daughter Olga and son Roman, as the investigative journalists write, also have or had a stake in their father's enterprises, which the Ministry of Defense has questions about.
The detainee's son, Roman Hrynkevich, received an honorable mention as a volunteer.
Roman has a fiancée, the artist Sonia Morozyuk.
The 25-year-old girl collaborates with one of the most famous Ukrainian designers, Ruslan Baginsky, and opens her exhibitions.
The artist began to be harassed in social networks. They wrote that Hrynkevich bought her apartments. But she assures that all the property she bought last year was with her earned money, that Hrynkevich does not invest money in her development as an artist, and in general she has known her fiancé for only five months, and fame came to her earlier.
On January 11, Igor Hrynkevich's wife, Professor Svitlana Hrynkevich, resigned from Lviv Polytechnic National University of her own free will. The woman worked at the department of marketing and logistics.
They found the apartments of the artist Morozyuk
On January 11, the ARMA Agency for Search and Management of Stolen Assets announced that it had searched for luxury real estate, expensive cars and weapons of Ihor Hrynkevich.
ARMA reports that 60% of the budget funds that the legal entities under the control of the defendant received from the Ministry of Defense were diverted to the benefit of other affiliated companies. ARMA employees analyzed information about controlled companies and found the following Ukrainian assets of the criminal case participants:
- 7 apartments: 3 apartments owned by Igor Hrynkevich's wife Svitlana; one Lviv apartment owned by the former son-in-law Maryan Shved, two apartments owned by the fiancee's son Sofia Morozyuk and another apartment of a person named Yaryna Hrynkevich, probably a relative.
- non-residential premises on the street Saksagansky in the center of the capital;
- 18 land plots - (in particular, significant plots in the Vyshgorod district of the Kyiv region, belonging to Ihor Hrynkevich and his son Roman Hrynkevich).
- 9 premium cars;
- shares in the authorized capital - UAH 14,731,625;
- 12 weapons;
- accounts in 8 banks.
This data was transferred to the SBI for the seizure of assets and their future possible confiscation, ARMA said.
On January 11, the SBI announced that it had seized real estate, premium cars, as well as property and accounts of companies controlled by Hrynkevich. However, it was not mentioned whether the apartment of the artist Morozyuk was among the seized property.
