A controlling stake in one of Ukraine’s largest developers, Ukrbud Corporation, is now owned by a little-known firm, Techno-Online. In mid-July, the company won an auction, offering 805 million hryvnias for a 66% stake. However, the actual settlement has not yet taken place due to litigation and asset seizures.
Before the auction, the company "Techno-Online" belonged to 29-year-old Marina Ayab from Zhovty Vody. Journalists note that she is a classic fictitious owner without a business background and assets to participate in the privatization of hundreds of millions of hryvnias.
The financial documentation was signed by Ayab together with Mykyta Tarkovsky, a lawyer associated with the wife of former MP and developer Maksym Mykytas. Tarkovsky has connections to a number of construction companies, likely affiliated with Mykytas.
On August 5, less than a month after the auction, 66% of Techno-Online was resold to Bilart LLC, founded by brothers Vasyl and Yevhen Astion. Their father, Mykola Astion, previously headed the Kyiv Department for Combating Organized Crime (UBOZ), in particular during the investigation of the Gongadze case, and later held senior positions in regional departments of internal affairs.
The Astion brothers are the owners of the agricultural holding "Dnipro Agro Group" and now control a strategic developer who left behind dozens of unfinished buildings and thousands of defrauded investors.
Experts note that formally the operation looks like market privatization, but in practice it is a classic example of transferring assets through shell companies and old connections with the tacit participation of state bodies.
