Corruption in the Ministry of Regional Development: MP says NABU is preparing a suspicion against Deputy Prime Minister Chernyshov
17 June 10:01
The NABU is preparing a suspicion against Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov. Oleksiy Honcharenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament from the European Solidarity faction, wrote about this in his telegram channel, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports
The MP, citing his own sources, said that NABU law enforcement officers are preparing to serve Oleksiy Chernyshov with a notice of suspicion.
“The NABU is preparing a suspicion against Deputy Prime Minister Chernyshov, according to my sources,” he wrote.
So far, there has been no official confirmation or denial of this information from NABU or Oleksiy Chernyshov.
As a reminder, the SAPO and the NABU said they had uncovered a corruption deal in the construction sector involving top government officials that could have caused the state more than UAH 1 billion in losses.
on June 12 and 13, NABU detectives, in agreement with the SAPO prosecutor, served 5 people with suspicion of attempted abuse of office, receiving and giving an undue benefit on a particularly large scale:
- former State Secretary of the Ministry of Regional Development (Volodin);
- former advisor to the Minister (Horbatiuk);
- former director of a state-owned enterprise (Sushon);
- the developer and his authorized representative (the organizers of the scheme, Serhii Kopystyr and Oleh Tatarenko).
According to the investigation, the developer and his authorized representative developed a scheme to illegally obtain a land plot in Kyiv with an area of more than 11 hectares at 43 Tyraspilska Street for the construction of a residential complex. The scheme involved officials of the Ministry of Regional Development and the director of a state-owned enterprise.
During the period when the Ministry was headed by Oleksiy Chernyshov, officials of the Ministry created conditions for the transfer of the land plot to the management of the said state-owned enterprise, the State Secretary granted permission to make a significant economic obligation, and the director of the state-owned enterprise illegally entered into investment agreements with the “right” construction company.
According to them, the developer had to give the state a part of the future apartments in the amount proportional to the value of the land plot. To minimize this amount, the land and the buildings on it were valued at almost five times cheaper, and the difference between this valuation and the market value exceeded UAH 1 billion. This is the amount of real estate the state would have lost if the contracts had been fulfilled. This was prevented by the seizure of the land plot at the request of the NABU and the SAPO.
In exchange for the transaction, the developer and his authorized representative provided the Ministry’s officials and their designees with a discount on apartments in already built residential complexes in Kyiv. The price per square meter ranged from UAH 1 to UAH 8 thousand with a minimum market value of about UAH 30 thousand. The total amount of the unlawful benefit was UAH 16.8 million.
At the request of the NABU and the SAPO, most of the illegally obtained apartments were also seized.
One of the apartments of the Kopystyra developer (KSM Group), as UP managed to find out a year ago, was owned by the wife of Vadym Marchuk, a special service officer who provided security for Chernyshov from 2021 to 23 when he headed the Ministry of Regional Development.
Therefore, one of the searches was conducted in the apartment of Yulia Marchuk, the wife of Vadym Marchuk. The Ombudsman’s Office managed to confirm that Marchuk lived in that apartment.
In this case, Chernyshov’s place was supposed to be searched, but the decision was never implemented.
Chernyshov himself is currently on a business trip abroad. According to information from law enforcement and political circles, the official’s place was searched about a month ago.
