Position: former People's Deputy of Ukraine of the II, III and IV convocations.
Sphere of corrupt activity: national security and defense.
Region of corruption activity: the entire territory of Ukraine.
Qualification: the actions of the former People's Deputy were qualified under Article 28, Part 4, Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Status: at large.
The plot of the case: in early December 2024, law enforcement officers uncovered a large-scale scam in the purchase of military uniforms. Suspicions were raised against a former adviser to the Ministry of Defense, a former people's deputy, and his son.
As reported by the National Police, the scheme was organized by a foreigner - an "international fraudster" who has been repeatedly prosecuted in France, Spain, Turkey, and Indonesia.
"In order to seize budget funds for the order of over a million sets of clothing for the Ukrainian military under agreements concluded in 2022 at inflated prices, the former advisor to the former Deputy Minister of Defense entered into a criminal conspiracy with a People's Deputy of the II-IV convocations. The deputy's son and a foreigner also appear in the deal," the report says.
According to a source of Suspilny, we are talking about a former adviser to the Ministry of Defense, businessman Roman Balykin, owner of the ATL group of companies, People's Deputy of three convocations Ihor Franchuk, and his son Yaroslav Franchuk.
To fulfill the order, the foreigner, the organizer of the scheme, selected a textile holding in Turkey and promised its managers to assist in obtaining a large defense order thanks to his connections with influential Ukrainian officials and politicians.
The Turkish side reported that the price of manufacturing more than a million sets of military uniforms would cost $25.6 million and issued a power of attorney to the organizer of the scheme to represent its interests.
The intermediary concluded five agreements with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine at inflated prices worth more than $35 million on behalf of a company controlled by him, and only after that signed contracts worth $25.6 million with a Turkish clothing holding. More than $10 million of the difference was supposed to "lie" in the pocket of the intermediary, an advisor to the former Deputy Minister of Defense and a former MP who lobbied for the conclusion of these contracts
According to the investigation, the foreign fraudster sent the Turkish side $10 million as a deposit, and when the Turks sewed the uniform and delivered it to Ukraine, the intermediary stopped contacting them and did not give them another $10 million for the work done. Operatives of the Department of Strategic Investigations and investigators of the National Police established that the organizer of the scam subsequently spent these funds at his own discretion.
According to available information, it has been established that the participants used the funds obtained through criminal schemes to purchase luxury cars and real estate, including abroad.
Police officers conducted 38 authorized searches of the residences and workplaces of Ukrainian citizens involved in the criminal scheme, as a result of which documents, cars, mobile phones, and computer equipment containing evidence of the crimes were seized.
National Police investigators have collected enough evidence to charge the advisor to the former Deputy Minister of Defense, the former People's Deputy, and his son with suspicion of fraud on a particularly large scale, committed by a group of persons (Article 28, Part 4, Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The issue of imposing an arrest on the property of the defendants is being resolved. They face up to 12 years in prison.
Persons potentially involved in corruption schemes: in addition to Franchuk, this corruption scheme also involves a former advisor to the Ministry of Defense, businessman Roman Balykin, the son of a former People's Deputy Yaroslav Franchuk, and a foreigner who turned out to be a fraudster.
Assets: There are no publicly available income declarations of Ihor Franchuk.
Persons who should have reacted: law enforcement agencies responded in a timely manner to the criminal activities of Franchuk and his accomplices.
Scandals: According to media reports, Ihor Franchuk is the former son-in-law of ex-president Leonid Kuchma, and was married to Olena Kuchma until the late 1990s. He has served in the Verkhovna Rada for several convocations, is the former chairman of the board of Chornomornaftogaz, and holds an honorary leadership position in the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
He currently owns 50 percent of the shares of the Crimean company "CENTER-PER". The co-owners are a company from the orbit of billionaire Leonid Yurushev, who is associated with Yanukovych's entourage and the Yenakiyevsky gangster group of the 90s. There is also a company from the orbit of the fugitive former Minister of Defense during Yanukovych's time, Pavel Lebedev, who fled to Crimea, and his daughter's factory in Sumy - it provided equipment to Russian defense enterprises. Lebedev and Franchuk come from the Krasnodar Territory.
Franchuk also owns 25% of the shares in Tiflis LLC, which is part of the orbit of Crimean restaurateur and winemaker Anatoly Kontridze. An offshore company in Cyprus and Russian citizen Elena Shubina also own 25% of the shares.
In addition, according to media reports, Kuchma's former son-in-law, now suspected of embezzling state funds, has profits from business in occupied Crimea, which he runs together with people who tolerate the Russian regime.
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