Abuse of half a billion: NABU is investigating the embezzlement of funds during the construction of fortifications in the Sumy region
The investigation began under the articles "Official forgery" and "Waste (appropriation) of someone else's property".
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is investigating the possible embezzlement of state funds allocated for the construction of military engineering and fortification facilities, as well as defense lines in the Sumy region. By data “Glavkom”, which refers to the court register, is talking about the amount of 480 million hryvnias.
The investigation suggests that officials of the Northern Department of the Ministry of Defense conspired with subcontractors, including Topaz LLC, Sumibudinvest LLC, and Budmontazhservis 1 LLC. In February-March 2024, contracts were concluded with these companies for the construction of 21 military engineering and technical facilities and 16 defense lines in the Sumy region for a total amount of about 700 million hryvnias.
Control over the quality and timeliness of work was carried out by the technical supervision department of the Main Department of Capital Investments of the Ministry of Defense. However, specialists of this department discovered significant deficiencies in the construction of fortifications and informed the contractors about it. Despite this, the construction companies ignored the remarks, which is why the military specialists refused to sign the acts of the completed works. In response, it was decided to replace the technical supervision contractor with civilian specialized organizations with which the Northern Directorate signed new contracts.
NABU gained access to the mobile phones of the heads of the contracting companies and the head of the Northern Department of the customer of the Ministry of Defense. In the iPhone of the director of “Topaz” LLC, law enforcement officers found the group “Fortification of Sumy Region”, which has 49 members and contains information about the progress of the construction of fortification structures. Correspondence regarding the purchase of construction materials and reports on completed works was also found in WhatsApp.
The pre-trial investigation continues under the articles “Official forgery” and “Empropriation or embezzlement of someone else’s property.” During the investigation, the technical supervision engineer’s phone revealed information about deficiencies during the construction of platoon reference point No. 25.
In July, the leadership of the Sumy region reported on the use of saved funds for the construction of additional fortification facilities.
According to the data of the ProZorro system, the department of capital construction of the Sumy Regional State during February-July 2024 announced 106 purchases related to the new construction of fortifications. In June, the customer began to reduce the value of some defense contracts, for example, contracts worth UAH 41.12 million and UAH 40.57 million were reduced to UAH 34.34 million and UAH 34.41 million, respectively. The reasons for the cost reduction were not explained, but the customer assured that it would not affect the volume and quality of the work performed. It is impossible to verify this, since all contracts are classified.
According to the YouControl analytical system, “Topaz” LLC was established in May 2004 and is owned by Valentina Siroshtan from Sumy. The authorized capital of the enterprise is UAH 21,000. The founder and owner of LLC “Sumibudinvest” LTD is Artem Deghterev from Kharkiv with a charter capital of UAH 80.5 thousand. “Budmontazhservis 1” LLC, with a charter capital of UAH 17 million, established in February 2009, belongs to Kyiv entrepreneur Andrii Handziuk.
