22.10.2024 Kharkiv Money laundering Tenders

Opposition Platform for Life seized the budget of Kharkiv region with the lobbying of Terekhov, Syniehubov and Yehorova-Lutsenko

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Babenko, a well-known curator of OPFL deputies in the Bohodukhiv district, unexpectedly wins a number of lucrative tenders. He has a list of enterprises under his belt: ELECTROENERGY 2025 LLC, ARGOS GROUP, ECOENERGY 2023, KARAT FINANCE, and even a sole proprietorship in his own name.

Doubtful tenders and construction scams. As a former director of INDIGO GROUP LLC, Babenko managed scandalous projects worth millions of hryvnias. One of them was the reconstruction of a kindergarten in Merefa for UAH 37.4 million. The work was performed poorly, in violation of technical standards, and the workers involved were not qualified.

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, INDIGO GROUP’s activities shifted to the reconstruction of damaged buildings, and Babenko resigned from the board of directors. However, can we expect high-quality work when previous projects have been left with significant overpayments and defects?

Tenders for hundreds of millions of hryvnias that could have been spent on the real needs of communities are turning into a source of enrichment for individuals. And the question arises again: who should be responsible for control?

Among the new tenders of INDIGO GROUP:

  1. Reconstruction of the building of the Staromurchytsia Village House of Culture of the Staromurchytsia Village Council of the Valky District, Kharkiv Region, worth UAH 17,751,968.60.
  2. Construction of a general practice – family medicine outpatient clinic at 19A Tsentralna Street in Cherneshchyna village, Borivskyi district, Kharkiv region for UAH 3,288,182.68.
    “Overhaul of the second floor of the surgical building of the MUNICIPAL NONPROFIT ENTERPRISE “Krasnokutsk Central District
  3. Hospital” of the Krasnokutsk District Council for UAH 1,572,980.00.
  4. Overhaul of the building of the Pushkin Hospital for the amount of UAH 25,970,400.00.

The works at many facilities in Kharkiv region turned out to be not only unfair, but also significantly overpriced. Babenko, as the owner of Indigo Group LLC, systematically enriched himself through monopolistic overpricing of works. The money that was supposed to be used to improve the infrastructure ended up in his pockets.

Conversion centers and fictitious transactions. Babenko and his companies have repeatedly been involved in criminal proceedings. His firms are suspected of participating in conversion centers, entering into fictitious transactions and creating fictitious enterprises to legalize the proceeds of crime.

“KARAT FINANCE”

Karat-Finance’s director is Konstantin Bystrytsky, and its founder is Konstantin Kozlov.

Bystrytskyi and Kozlov were the founders of the company Status-Resource. Now this company has been re-registered to Vitaliy Hovorukha, one of the two founders of Indigo Group. The accountant of Karat-Finance LLC is Victoria Kravchenko, who is also a signatory to Indigo Group.

The second founder of this company is Pavlo Babenko himself. Thus, Babenko’s withdrawal from the Indigo Group is just a formality and an attempt to absolve himself of responsibility after the revelation of overstatements and manipulations with the estimates.

During the repairs of shelters carried out by Karat-Finance, materials are purchased at prices significantly higher than market prices. This results in poor-quality work and withdrawal of funds through overestimated estimates.

Tenders, embezzlement, and inflated estimates are the reality in which communities in Kharkiv region live, losing money on important infrastructure projects due to a corrupt system.

One of the cases is the repair of a shelter in Lozova.

The Department of Education, Youth and Sports of the Lozova City Council of the Kharkiv Oblast signed a contract for the overhaul of the basement (the simplest shelter) in Lozova Lyceum No. 7. The winner was expected to be KARAT FINANCE LLC.

The total estimated budget of the project is UAH 21.4 million, most of which will be spent on non-existent items in the budget.

Firewood schemes

Babenko has also been involved in schemes under the government program “Free Firewood for the Population”. He not only systematically wins public procurement, but also does so at inflated prices.

Take Lozova, for example. During the implementation of the program, the purchase of firewood was charged UAH 200 more than the market price per cubic meter, and the delivery price was sky-high, with UAH 1,660 in overpayments.

Interestingly, in both Lozova and Dergachiv ATCs, the price of transportation was 3200 UAH/m³, although other suppliers, such as the Kharkiv Forest Research Station, charged only 840 UAH.

Losses for ATCs: Dergachiv ATC lost almost UAH 2.5 million on agreements with Babenko. Moreover, Babenko repeatedly won public tenders even with the highest price offer among competitors.

As a result of numerous frauds, contracts were concluded for the delivery of fuel pellets and briquettes at a price twice as high as the market price. This happened not only in ATCs, but also with such large customers as Kharkiv Metro.

According to our information, the Poltava SBI has already registered these facts in the URPI under No. 62023170020000314, Part 5 of Art. 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and the Bureau of Economic Security has launched investigations under No. 72023000110000023 and No. 72023000110000024 on embezzlement of budget funds and abuse of power.

What’s next?

Despite the investigation, Babenko continues to win tenders and embezzle public funds. The question remains: when will justice be done?

I wonder if community leaders, Mayor Terekhov, and the heads of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration Sinehubov and the Regional Council Yegorova-Lutsenko do not notice the obvious manipulations.

Did you witness a crime?

Let us know about it. We will help protect the violated rights!

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