Money from the Ministry of Defense, which should have gone to uniforms, bulletproof vests and underwear for the military, was spent on life and art.
In the first week of 2024, a corruption scandal in the family of Lviv businessman Igor Grinkevich, one of the largest suppliers to the Ministry of Defense, continues in Ukraine. It turns out that one of the family companies withdrew a billion hryvnias from the purchase of clothing for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. However, this is unlikely to be the Grinkevichs’ first such transaction.
Troubled construction projects, a number of open criminal cases, not entirely transparent charities and inflated prices for helmets and body armor for the military are not all the actions that the Lviv family suspects this.
Attempt to bribe DBR
On December 29, employees of the State Bureau of Investigation detained businessman Igor Grinkevich, who was trying to bribe one of the heads of the Main Investigation Department of the State Bureau of Investigation for 500 thousand dollars.
The businessman offered a bribe for help in returning property seized from companies under his control during the investigation of one of the criminal proceedings.
Tender for uniforms for the Armed Forces of Ukraine
According to law enforcement officials, several months ago the DBI opened a case regarding transactions involving the purchase of clothing and linen for Ukrainian military personnel. result, Igor Grinkevich’s companies won 23 tenders to supply the Ministry of Defense with clothing worth more than UAH 1.5 billion.
The investigation established that the enterprises controlled by the businessman, which were previously engaged in construction and did not have sufficient production, warehouse and other facilities for the production and storage of clothing for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, is involved in the enforcement of the defense order. This led to damage to the budget, according to preliminary estimates, of 1.2 billion hryvnias and, accordingly, a disruption in supplies.
Law enforcement officials discovered a complete failure to fulfill six contracts. Under at least seven contracts, the enterprises delivered goods to the warehouses of the military units in small quantities only, but received government funds for the full fulfillment of the obligations.
It was also found that eight contracts were completed with a delay of three to five months.
Besides this, SBI investigators discovered the facts of overestimation of the value of goods supplied to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The involvement of former Defense Ministry officials in the transactions is also now being verified.
Not the first income from the military
The day before, the famous blogger Igor Lachenkov reported that this is not the first deal of the Lviv businessman. Before this, there were stories with annoying construction projects, in particular, unfinished construction in one of the parts in the Zhytomyr region, and there was work at the landfill Wide Lan in the Nikolaev region.
Igor Grinkevich also won tenders for his construction companies, which were supposed to provide clothing to military personnel. Thus, the total value of three transactions is UAH 1.54 billion.
Since the entrepreneur’s construction companies cannot sew clothes, they, according to Lachenkov, only buy goods in Turkey.
Journalist Evgeny Plinsky clarified that 60% of the funds went directly as Grinkevich’s personal income, and 40% for the purchase of goods. Plinsky also said that this foreign product does not meet any military quality assurance standards.
“In addition, all three scoundrel companies received money without specific delivery thanks to fake deeds. Some open contracts still have no delivery. But almost a billion hryvnias were spent on the purchase of real estate , cars, luxury vacations,” Lachenkov noted.
It’s about companies TRADE LINES RETAIL, LLC Construction Alliance MONTAZHPROEKT And CITYGRAD LLC. According to the Accounts Chamber, these companies did not provide the army with jackets, pants and T-shirts worth 1.5 billion hryvnias.
Who else in the family is involved in the contracts?
The son of Igor Grinkevich – Roman is the founder and director LLC Construction Alliance MONTAZHPROEKT. Just recently he bought a house with an area of 289 square meters in the elite village of Kozin near Kiev. m for 25 million hryvniawith a market value of 50.5 million UAH. In addition to the house, on the same day, Roman acquired four plots of land in the same Kozin.
Plinsky also learned that Roman Grinkevich “appeared” in journalist Mikhail Tkach’s investigation of “war-weary visitors to the capital’s Boho club” in his new BMW car worth about 150 thousand dollars.
In addition, Igor Grinkevich’s wife, Svetlana, and daughter, Olga Grinkevich-Shved, are the owners of one of the companies. LLC TRADE LINES RETAILwhere in December 2023 the Ministry of Defense signed an agreement for the supply of food products worth 470 million Hryvnia.
“Mother and daughter do not hesitate to boast in their social networks about elite shopping, trips to the Maldives twice a year in expensive hotels, vacations in Europe and trips on the VIP train of Ukrzaliznytsia (one trip costs 36 thousand hryvnia – ed.). Svetlana Grink is a teacher at the National University of Lviv Polytechnic. This is the luxury of life, money that carries the blood of our military,” said Lachenkov.
The total value of tenders received by the Grinkevich family company from the Ministry of Defense for 2022-2023 is UAH 3.2 billion.
Art in blood
According to Lachenkov, Roman Grinkevich, in 2023, actively spent funds earned from the Ukrainian military on a young artist and his part-time girlfriend Sonya Morozyuk.
According to media reports, over the past year Morozyuk has been actively promoted on social networks and on billboards across the country. Also During this time, the artist acquired an expensive apartment in an elite residential complex in Kyiv, a gallery-workshop for 250 thousand dollars and an expensive Porsche car.
It is officially known that Morozyuk has been actively cooperating with the dubious Grinkevich family foundation hope.ua since March 2023.
“Permanent gifts, expensive jewelry, flowers for 100k a month, a trip to Venice during PV, a Graff ring, the cost of which starts at 7 thousand dollars, advertising on the most expensive screens, advertising banners and an exhibition. Still sure It is not known with what exact funds Morozyuk bought commercial premises worth $250,000, with a fortune of $100,000 a yearwhich he himself stated, but there is a completely fair assumption that the money that was so diligently and cynically laundered in the Armed Forces of Ukraine was also laundered through contemporary art (including through the foundation),” added Lachenkov.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.