Company with criminal ties wins ₴100M Kyselivska gymnasium

A company with a dubious past has been awarded a hundred-million-dollar tender for the reconstruction of the Kyselivska gymnasium in Kherson region. This company is involved in criminal cases related to illegal schemes of transferring funds through fictitious companies.

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations with reference to the Prozorro procurement system.

In April, the Chornobaivka village council announced a tender for the reconstruction of the Kyselivka gymnasium building. This settlement near Chornobaivka was heavily damaged by shelling during the occupation. UAH 100 million 384 thousand have been allocated for the reconstruction of the Kyselivka gym nasium.

The work will be financed from the local budget and should be completed by the end of December 2025. According to the tender documentation, the contractor is to carry out a range of construction and engineering works, as well as purchase and install furniture, including tables, desks, first aid kits and other equipment.

Bids were accepted until April 28, but only one bidder, Sirius Group Agency LLC, applied for the tender and is currently awaiting the signing of the agreement. The bid was 1.8 million less than the expected purchase amount.

Screenshot: Prozorro

The CPR decided to find out what kind of company received the almost one hundred million state tender for the reconstruction of the Kyseliv gymnasium. According to the online service YouControl, Sirius Group Agency LLC was registered in 2011 with a registered capital of UAH 85 thousand. The main KVED is the construction of residential and non-residential buildings. The company is not listed in the system for journalistic investigations.

During its existence, the company has made UAH 3.5 million in public procurement. In total, the company participated in two tenders in 2024, where the customer was a military unit of the National Guard of Ukraine. Also in 2024, the company had assets equal to its financial liabilities - UAH 8.3 million.

Despite the fact that journalists have not yet mentioned this company in their investigations, it appears in four criminal cases. Thus, according to a 2018 ruling of the Darnytsia District Court of Kyiv, the pre-trial investigation found that a group of people organized a criminal scheme that involved transferring funds received from customers to the accounts of fictitious enterprises under their control.

The group was engaged in fictitious transactions where they purchased goods from companies that did not actually make real deliveries. These goods were then sold for cash in Kyiv and other regions, resulting in losses to the budget through tax evasion. Through this scheme, the companies could reduce their taxes, receive unaccounted for cash, and overstate their expenses and VAT credits. It was established that this group had been operating in Kyiv and the region since 2015 and included 4 people and others. One of the participants of this scheme is our winner.

Here is a screenshot: YouControl

Despite accusations of fictitious transactions and criminal cases, the company received a multimillion-dollar public tender for the reconstruction of the gymnasium. This raises questions about the transparency of tender procedures and control over the expenditure of budget funds, especially when it comes to large sums of money aimed at restoring war-affected regions.

A company with political connections was also awarded the contract for road maintenance in Kherson district. The tender was announced twice after the first attempt was canceled due to miscalculations. The lowest bid was submitted by Paritetbudinvest, a company with political ties to the Odesa authorities.

And in early April, a tender for road maintenance worth 180 million hryvnias was held in Kherson region, with the European Road Construction Company as the only bidder. This company often wins government contracts, particularly in Mykolaiv region, and gets a significant share of non-competitive contracts.

Анна Бальчінос