Investor in waste sorting in Mykolaiv linked to corruption and politicians

The company that is bidding for the waste sorting contract in Mykolaiv is affiliated with a Ukrainian-American company. The company has already been involved in a criminal case and owns an elite car fleet.

This was reported by Nikcenter.

The company "Best Tu Energy Nico", which claims to have a 25-year contract for waste sorting in Mykolaiv, actually belongs to the Ukrainian-American company "LNK". This company has been working with waste in southern Ukraine since 2015 and has already been at the center of corruption scandals and had close ties to local authorities.

A potential investor in the waste processing plant is LNK Recycling LLC. The company is headed by Yuriy Mostovyi, a former deputy of Mykolaiv City Council and former director of Mykolaivkomunktrans, the municipal enterprise responsible for waste. Since its foundation in 2021, the company has never submitted financial reports.

"LNK Recycling is owned by the Ukrainian-American LNK LLC, which has been operating in the waste management industry for over a decade. In 2015, the company opened a biogas power plant at a landfill in Mykolaiv. In the first year of operation, the police opened a criminal investigation into the possible sale of electricity at an inflated price, and the fraud with the "green tariff," according to the investigation, caused the state more than UAH 7 million in losses and was allegedly laundered through fictitious companies. There is still no verdict.

In total, LNK has opened five facilities for biogas extraction and energy production, having received state and municipal land for use in Mykolaiv, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr, and Cherkasy regions. Despite the war, the company demonstrates significant revenues: this year, it purchased a Mercedes-Benz AMG G 63 2025 (over UAH 14 million) and a Lexus LM 350H (approximately UAH 6 million).

Among the co-founders of LNK LLC are former MPs Vadym Plotkin and Stanislav Kruhliakov, who previously worked as an assistant to MPs Ihor Brychenko and Vadym Merikov. It was during Merikov's tenure at the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration that the company implemented the project at the local landfill.

In August, Mykolaiv deputies refused to sign a contract for the construction of a sorting station. Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych promised to announce a new tender and continue working on the project, which, according to him, has been underway for more than four years. The first tender did not take place due to the lack of participants, and the second contractor was selected, but, according to the mayor, an "information attack" began.

The police then opened a criminal investigation into possible abuses during the tender. The project's budget is UAH 1.25 billion over 25 years, and law enforcement is conducting comprehensive inspections.

In January, the court ordered the city council to build the station, and the Supreme Court confirmed the illegality of the council's inaction, which paves the way for a solution to the longstanding waste crisis.

Анна Літман