The Hrynkevychs Mafia. Exposing a Lviv-Based Businessman and His Family

Author: Oksana Kopiichuk, Legal Advisor, Transparency International Ukraine 

For several weeks, the whole country has been discussing Lviv-based businessman Ihor Hrynkevych, who got caught in a corruption scandal with procurement for the Ministry of Defense. After learning about the investigation, he decided to “hush up” the thing but was caught offering a bribe of USD 500,000. 

An even bigger scandal erupted when information about expensive houses, apartments, land plots, and cars, which Hrynkevych’s relatives acquired by a strange coincidence after the full-scale invasion, became public.  

Find out in the material how come Hrynkevych was exposed, and what his family purchased during the year.

Suspicious defense procurement 

A few months ago, the State Bureau of Investigation initiated criminal proceedings on the fact of fraud with the purchase of clothes and underwear for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Companies of businessman Hrynkevych, previously engaged in construction, somehow were awarded in 23 tenders for the supply of clothing to the Ministry of Defense for more than UAH 1.5 bln. Hrynkevych is called one of the largest suppliers of the Ministry of Defense. 

During a search at Kyiv Customs in mid-November, the SBI seized underwear, combat shirts, summer T-shirts, and other items. The suppliers of the products were Trade Lines Retail LLC, Construction Company Citygrad LLC, and Construction Alliance Montazhproekt LLC. 

The investigation found that the companies did not have adequate production, warehousing, and other capacities to produce and store clothing for the Ministry. Of all contracts, 6 were not fulfilled; in another 7 contracts, only a small part of the goods under the contract was delivered to the military units; another 8 contracts Hrynkevych fulfilled with a delay of 3–5 months. According to journalists, the delivered goods did not fully meet the stated requirements and characteristics. 

His companies received payments for the complete fulfillment of the obligations. In addition, based on the analysis of contracts and customs documents of Hrynkevych’s companies, it was clear that the cost of goods was inflated. The SBI estimates the national budget losses at UAH 1.2 bln. 

After learning about the criminal proceedings, Hrynkevych got the phone number of the deputy head of a department of the SBI Main Investigation Office. What happened next was even more interesting.

How Hrynkevych wanted to bribe the SBI 

The materials of the Hrynkevych case included the fact of the correspondence and meetings of the businessman with the very representative of the SBI. On December 23, Hrynkevych wrote to the employee of the State Bureau in Signal to his personal number and indicated that they had mutual friends who had given him the number, and later in a telephone conversation, he asked for a meeting. 

On the same day, a meeting was held at the WOG gas station in Kyiv. Then Hrynkevych said that it would be good if the SBI would assist his companies in returning the goods seized at the customs.

The SBI investigator understood the unlawfulness of Hrynkevych’s actions, so he drew up a report on the commission of a crime. Meanwhile, the businessman did not stop, and on Christmas Day he again wrote: “Christ was born [Ukrainian Christmas-time greeting — t/n]. When will we be seeing each other?” He again tried to call but did not receive a response from the SBI investigator. A day later, they did agree on the date of a new meeting, which again took place at the gas station. Back then, on December 28, Hrynkevych had the audacity to say that he wanted to give a bribe of USD 500,000 to an SBI employee. 

On December 29, during a meeting at VERY TASTY CAFE, Hrynkevych brought and gave the SBI investigator the promised money for the return of the companies’ goods and the closure of the criminal proceedings. He was detained immediately, and the following day, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv sent Hrynkevych to celebrate the New Year in a pre-trial detention center. An alternative was more than UAH 429 mln of bail. 

Hrynkevych’s wife is a philanthropist, and his son has a presidential award 

Ihor Hrynkevych has a large family that owns a number of assets. On January 11, the ARMA, at the request of the SBI, found elite real estate, land plots, cars, and weapons belonging to the businessman and his inner circle. Members of the Hrynkevych family are in the ownership structure of the same companies that supplied clothing to the Ministry of Defense.  

Family of Hrynkevych (left): Ihor Hrynkevych, his children Olha and Roman, wife Svitlana 

The wife of the businessman, Svitlana Hrynkevych, is a co-founder of the Hope.UA charitable foundation and a former professor at Lviv Polytechnic University. The day before the planned student rally, she resigned voluntarily. Svitlana, together with her daughter, was the co-founder of the above-mentioned Trade Lines Retail LLC. 

In 2023 alone, Hrynkevych’s wife became the owner of two apartments in Pechersk district in Kyiv: an area of 51.6 sq. m. and 123.6 sq. m. Their total market value is estimated at UAH 30-35 mln. In March, Svitlana Hrynkevych acquired the Kateryna motel near the Arena-Lviv stadium, and in November, she obtained 1.7 hectares of land in Lviv Oblast.  

What is known about Hrynkevych’s son, Roman, is that he is the director and co-founder of the very Hope.UA charitable foundation. For his volunteer contribution in 2022, Hrynkevych Jr. was granted the Golden Heart Award from the President of Ukraine. 

Roman is also the head of Construction Alliance Montazhproekt LLC, a company involved in scandalous defense procurement. Since 2019, his company has begun to receive contracts from the Zhytomyr Regional State Administration; later, it was mentioned in journalistic investigations. In 2020, Roman Hrynkevych also participated in local elections and ran for the Zhytomyr District Council from the Servant of the People party. In 2021, Construction Alliance Montazhproekt received a subcontract for the construction of the Shyrokyi Lan military training ground in Mykolaiv Oblast.  

In the autumn of 2023, the company came to the attention of investigative journalists in another episode. Nashi Groshi wrote that in the Novyi Kropyvnyk village in Lviv Oblast, a Center for Citizen Security was to be built. According to the results of the tender, Lviv Regional Military Administration ordered its construction from Construction Alliance Montazhproekt LLC for UAH 33 mln. Journalists estimated that the cost of a number of building materials was one and a half times higher than the market price. 

In May 2023, Roman Hrynkevych purchased a house with an area of 289 square meters in the prestigious village of Kozyn in Kyiv Oblast for UAH 25 mln (with an estimated market value of UAH 50.5 mln). At the same time, he became the owner of four more plots in Kozyn, all in one day. 

The son of Hrynkevych has a bride, the famous artist Sonia Moroziuk, who in 2023 purchased a 2015 Porsche Cayenne car and commercial premises in Kyiv on Saksahanskoho Street with an area of 122 sq.m. for UAH 4.6 mln. The ARMA also discovered 2 more apartments belonging to Moroziuk, but the artist says that she acquired both almost a year before meeting Roman Hrynkevych.  

Eventually, the public became aware of the property of Hrynkevych’s mother-in-law Iryna Fedak and his former son-in-law Marian Shved. In 2023, Fedak obtained three plots in Lviv Oblast, an apartment of 127.7 sq. m. in Lviv and another 2 hectares of land in Kyiv Oblast. In September 2023, Shved became the owner of an apartment of 161 sq. m. for UAH 8 mln, which is located on the same street in Lviv as the apartment of Hrynkevych’s mother-in-law. The ARMA also found another Lviv apartment belonging to a relative of the businessman, Yaryna Hrynkevych. 

In general, at the request of the SBI, ARMA employees found the following Ukrainian assets of Hrynkevych and his entourage:

• residential real estate: 17
• non-residential real estate: 7
• land plots: 18
• premium cars: 9
• shares in the authorized capital: UAH 14,731,625
• weapons: 12
• intellectual property rights: 3.

What happens next? 

On December 30, Ihor Hrynkevych was served with a suspicion notice under Article 369, part 3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (proposal, promise or providing an improper advantage to an official). Possible punishment: imprisonment for a term of 4 to 8 years. Hrynkevych is currently in the pre-trial detention center. He has not yet been served with a suspicion notice of possible embezzlement in defense procurement. 

According to the SBI, on January 11, seizures of property, accounts, and assets of the entrepreneur’s family companies began. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing. 

The Department of Defense stated it was terminating all contracts with companies associated with the Hrynkevychs. Later, Deputy Minister of Defense Vitalii Polovenko indicated that there was only one contract left, which was valid until April 1. This is a contract for the supply of food to the military in Mykolaiv and Kherson oblasts, which was concluded before the news of arrests and detentions. 

Moreover, the SBI notes that verification of the involvement of former officials of the Ministry of Defense, who have not carried out any legal actions to ensure the implementation or termination of contracts, is currently underway.