In Kyiv, the leaders of the Municipal Organization "Kyivzelenbud" were charged with suspicion as they were allegedly receiving million-dollar "kickbacks" from contractors. The current subjects of the investigation include the general director of "Kyivzelenbud", Yuriy Bakhmat, his first deputy Oleksiy Lukash, and the deputy head of one of the departments. They were detained with a bail option set at 51.4 million UAH. Regarding the three heads of the contracting companies, the issue of preventive measures is still being decided.
This information was provided by the Kyiv city prosecutor’s office, noting that, according to the prosecution, the head of "Kyivzelenbud" and his first deputy, involving the head of the utility’s department in the scheme, systematically received bribes from contractors with whom contracts for works were concluded. Entrepreneurs were "encouraged" to pay kickbacks with promises of further cooperation and future contracts with "Kyivzelenbud". The size of these "voluntary contributions" was 15% of the amount paid to the entrepreneurs. Those who refused to "cooperate" in this manner had no chance of signing contracts or performing work.
"Representatives of the contracting companies were offered to pay the management of the utility company money for signing the acts of acceptance of performed work. At the same time, no one intended to check the scope and quality of these works. During the pre-trial investigation, only in February 2025, 10 cases of proposals to pay and 5 cases of receiving ’kickbacks’ from entrepreneurs totaling more than 3 million UAH were documented," the prosecutor’s office reported.
However, the leaders of "Kyivzelenbud" didn’t manage to receive all the "earned" money from the contracts signed in 2024. According to the pre-trial investigation, the total amount that was supposed to end up in the pockets of the group members was at least 25 million UAH. Temporarily, they will need to pay out of their pockets to gain freedom – the top management of the utility organization, which is now under arrest, can post bail in the amount of 51.4 million UAH.
Regarding the other three participants in the scheme, namely the heads of the contracting companies, they have also been notified of suspicion. However, the matter of selecting preventive measures for them is still being decided. The sanction of the article provides for up to 13 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.
The director of "Kyivzelenbud" was arrested following searches of office premises
As reported by Informator, following searches conducted by representatives of the State Bureau of Investigations and the National Police in the office premises of the Municipal Organization "Kyivzelenbud" on March 6, 2025, almost all the heads of the company were detained. As of March 10, there was no official confirmation of the detentions, but media sources cited their own sources, which claimed that the officials were detained for bribery.
It was reported that the director of the Municipal Organization "Kyivzelenbud" Yuriy Bakhmat and his first deputy were taken to temporary detention facilities on Thursday, March 6, immediately after the searches were completed in their own office. Bakhmat took charge of "Kyivzelenbud" in 2023 after the former director Oleksiy Korol moved to another position. Before this, Bakhmat worked for two years in the Department of Environmental Protection and Climate Change Adaptation of the Kyiv City State Administration.
We also reported that in the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv, residents of building No.11 on Chekhovskyi Lane were outraged by the transformation of their courtyard into a square. The city authorities conducted the work at the end of 2024, and the contractors rushed to complete the project by the end of December, thus executing it poorly. For the work, which locals also protested against, as much as 6 million UAH were spent - funds that, according to frequent visitors to the "improved" yard, could have been used for something better.