Volodymyr Groysman’s Private Thief and his Property

Former Head of the Sate Fiscal Service of Ukraine ran away from the country leaving a number of assets related to building construction abandoned. The assets include 5 apartment complexes in Vinnytsya – Naberezhnyi Kvartal (the Riverfront Area), Dynasty, Empire, Oscar and Yevropeyskyi Kvartal (The European Area). Moreover, he invested his funds in the luxury apartment (157sq. m.) located in elite Pechersky district, Kyiv and the cottage in Kyiv region.

The apartment complexes, financed by Prodan through his friend Maksym Pavytskyi, have been under construction in Vinnytsya for more than 4 years. The investments are not indicated in the declarations of the former official as the money invested in the construction had been received illegally and legalized through fictitious persons.

According to the pretrial investigation that was handed over to me by my sources in the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, active construction of the r4esidential complex called ‘Naberezhnyi Kvartal’ (for 650 apartments) in Vinnytsya was started by the former Head of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine immediately upon the Revolution of Dignity. However, the official representative of the apartment complex was his close friend Viktoriya Halytska since at that time Mr. Prodan worked as civil servant and the investments were not indicated in his declaration.

The complex is being erected violating fire safety and state construction standards. The builders have not been officially employed and this fact is a vivid representation of tax evasion.

Sales department representatives keep on saying that Naberezhnyi Kvartal is the property development company building the residential complex but such a company doesn’t even exist.

According to the information in mass media, HBC Zhilstroy is a property development company that is engaged in building the residential complex Naberezhnyi Kvartal. Zhilstroy is told to have hired a general contractor and, in its turn, the general contractor hired a number of subcontractors. However, having analyzed different information resources, I couldn’t find connection between Zhilstroy and this residential complex. The webpage of Naberezhnyi Kvartal doesn’t contain any information about its development company, building permits and contact persons. It looks like an information platform aimed at attracting investors and that’s it. But names of the construction customer and the development company are still unknown.

Well, just like no one actually knows where Prodan is hiding too.

As it is explained by managers of this unknown development company, building of Naberezhnyi Kvartal is franchise-based that’s why the name of the residential complex is used in other cities of Ukraine, however, the complexes in each city have nothing to do with each other. It was also explained by sales department employees that they couldn’t provide any information concerning the owner of the development company of Naberezhnyi Kvartal by phone. But in the course of my conversation with the manager of the development company I found out that the unknown company was also developing the residential complex ‘Oscar’ in Vinnytsya and planned to develop one more complex called ‘Empire’.

According to my information, these complexes (Oscar, Empire and Dynasty) belong to Prodan as well. And they are being developed with the help of Mrs. Halytska. The company of Prodan’s friend Halytska called ‘Dynasty V. V.’ is an official property developing company erecting these complexes. When sales were launched, Halytska personally opened sales departments of two residential complexes in Vinnytsya in April, 2016.

Construction activity is being kept on to date. In July 2018 municipal authorities of Vinnytsya approved the agreement on equity contribution of Dynasty V. V. to infrastructure development in connection with the construction of one more complex at 6H Akademika Yanhelya St.

Apparently, Viktoriya Halytska is just a representative of the development company and has nothing to do with investments in the residential complexes, despite her being legally bounded to more than 11 various companies.

It all came to the fore out of the correspondence between the head of the State Fiscal Service and Prodan’s trustee who was responsible for all his financial operations including control over the construction and its investment. The trustees name is Maksym Pavytskyi. The information on every single financial operation and deal was regularly forwarded per Telegram to the person who fed him – Myroslav Prodan.

On May 11, 2018 Maksym Pavytskyi notified Mr. Prodan of taking 350k USD for settling up financial issues:

• 140k USD was owed to someone by the name ‘Smart Cookie’ that is Vitalyi Astahov who used to be Prodan’s trustee and dealt with legalization of income derived from crime.
• 85k USD was allocated for some park;
• 125k USD was to be invested in the residential complex Naberezhnyi Kvartal.

It was also mentioned in the correspondence that Smart Cookie had to send some information on Turkey.

Then, Maksym Pavytskyi informed Mr. Prodan in their correspondence as of May 21, 2018, that the repair of Prodan’s apartments (he apparently meant 3 of them, one of which was 157sq.m) in the residential complex Frantsuzkyi Kvartal (The French Area) located in Kyiv would cost 80k USD. And Pavytskyi reminded Prodan about the needed investment in the residential complex Naberezhnyi Kvartal in the amount of 100k USD once again.

On May 27, 2018 Mr. Pavytskyi reported to Prodan as to the expenses amounting to 920k USD:

· Expenditures of Smart Cookie in the amount of 740k USD for Turkish estate (it apparently was an advanced payment);

• 100k USD spent on the erection of Naberezhnyi Kvartal as it was already discussed;
• 80k USD spent on repairs in Prodan’s apartments in the residential complex Frantsuzkyi Kvartal;
• Rest of the sum was offered by Mr. Pavytskyi to be spent on Frantsuzkyi Kvartal and construction of the cottage in Stoyanka, Kyiv region. The cottage was also missing in the yearly declaration of the official.

Pavytskyi regularly reported to Prodan as to particular investments that were done in Vinnytsya.

Let’s take the aforementioned residential complex Dynasty as an example. In June, 2016 Pavytskyi reminded Prodan about the funds in the amount of 242k UAH needed for purchase of building materials and transportation services. He also provided a record on settlements of work of machines and equipment at Dynasty.

A similar record on Naberezhnyi Kvartal (Phase II) was sent by Pavytskyi as well.

There was a similar utilization report on 317k UAH that was used for the residential complex Yevropeyskyi Kvartal. Apparently, it’s been also getting investments from Myroslav Prodan, former Head of the State Fiscal Service.

So, Mr. Prodan was illegally investing in developing more than 10 complexes through his proxies:

• Residential complexes in Vinnytsya: Naberezhnyi Kvartal, Oscar, Empire, Dynasty and Yevropeyskyi Kvartal;
• Real estate in Kyiv and Kyiv region: Residential complex ‘French Boulevard’ (three apartments) and a cottage in Stoyanka village;

· Real estate in Turkey: a cottage in Bodrum (I’m about to tell you about it a bit later).

Being so ‘sick and suffering’, Myroslav Prodan is subject to the article 366-1 o the Criminal Code of Ukraine for deliberately declaring false information.

It entails a fine of 2,500 to 3,000 times the individual income tax exemption limit or community works for a period of 150 to 240 hours or imprisonment for a term of up to two years with deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or carry out certain activity for a period of up to three years.

If, in the course of its investigation, the National Agency finds out facts of possible illegal enrichment the punishment shall be imprisonment for a term of up to two years with deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or carry out certain activity of up to three years with confiscation of property, according to the article 368-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.