Zelenskyy’s Collector Ihor Shaykhet: what does Kolomoiskyi and Hohilashvili have to do with it

For the last two and a half years, a responsible part of the country has been plagued by a deep sense of shame, driven by the actions of the president and his entourage. Watching this whole sideshow, one just wants to close their eyes and ears, so repugnant do representatives of the new "elite" often appear.

However, a keen observer might notice some oddities in what’s happening. No, not in the actions of the "servants" and other clowns who have seized power. But in who and how the latest scandals are being reported, and which of them end up becoming public knowledge. Because event hosts and photographers are constantly disgracing themselves, yet scandals are not always blown up from these shames.

A vivid example is the leaked video and its subsequent promotion featuring the behavior of the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Hohilashvili at a checkpoint in Donbas. Although nothing special (in the scale of values of the "greens", of course) happened: well, the deputy minister acted bullishly towards the police, swore, has a Russian passport, and has a strange friendship with Budanov. So what? Up there, thanks to the choice of the people, they all are like that. So why was Hohilashvili targeted with such relish? Especially on those channels and in those media considered close to the main beneficiary of Zelenskyy, Ihor Kolomoyskyi?

The answer is simple – Kolomoyskyi is squeezing out of the president’s entourage everyone whom Zelenskyy brought in independently, without Ihor Valerievich’s agreement or direct instruction. And the blow was aimed not at Hohilashvili, but at his wife, the president’s personal assistant and secretary, Maria Levchenko. Because they switched from Hohilashvili to her and it turned out that she somehow has access to classified documents of the President’s Office and works there on similarly unclear grounds.

Again, there is nothing surprising or strange from the point of view of the "Kvartal" ensemble’s worldview. Nor from the point of view of the majority of the population, who were again helped to "see through" the flagrant violation of all conceivable laws and norms by Mariya Levchenko by the channels and media of the noted beneficiary of the man sitting in the president’s chair.

What is Ihor Valeriyovych aiming for? The answer is clear – total control over the president and blocking all alternative sources of information and opportunities to influence the president. Even if they are coming from clowns from "Kvartal".

All these personnel intrigues are in line with severing the president from his former habitat – "Kvartal 95" – and establishing control over him. Groups of influence within the president’s entourage are fighting for this, including the State Security Administration (UDA), which is supposed to protect and safeguard the head of state.

After Andriy Bohdan left the post of head of the President’s Office, Serhii Rud was appointed head of the UDA. He used to work at the security company SecureIT, which notably also guarded Ihor Kolomoyskyi. One of its co-founders is "Ukrnafta". The second is Oleh Shaykhet, formerly Kolomoyskyi’s personal bodyguard. He is the father of Mykolaiv Region Police Chief Serhiy Shaykhet and his brother Ihor Shaykhet.

In this complex intrigue, we are particularly interested in Ihor Shaykhet, who is known in narrow circles as "the collector." He is a shareholder of the first Ukrainian Cash-in-Transit company - LLC "SIT Security". According to persistent rumors, this company launders "kickbacks" received by the president’s family.

Such a tangled web. And thus another "leak" involving Ihor Shaykhet becomes clear – last summer, information about a fight between "Servant of the People" Strikharskyi and Shaykhet spread across the network at the moment when the former discovered his wife in the arms of the latter. However, the "leak" turned out to be rather weak – a banal adultery that elicited more disgust than outrage at Shaykhet’s actions, who either beat up Strikharskyi himself or the other way around.

Also read: Ihor Shaykhet is again trying to publish fakes in anonymous Telegram channels against MP Andriy Strikharskyi

But what can you expect from clowns who are no match for the grandmaster of intrigues Kolomoyskyi? They leaked what they could and how they could. And the talented minions of the "servants," eager to curry favor with the latter, did everything to make the scandal juicier:

It is clear that journalists "dug" further and found curious details about Ihor Shaykhet. It turns out he is the son of that same Oleh Shaykhet, who guarded Kolomoyskyi, and the brother of Serhiy Shaykhet, head of the Mykolaiv police.

This is what "Dumska," which can hardly be called "yellow press," wrote about the Shaykhet family representatives: "Oleh Shaykhet rose to the rank of colonel, commanded the special unit ’Sokol’ of the Volyn UBOZ. Now he is engaged in the security business. His firm ’Security’ is closely connected with the structures of Ihor Kolomoyskyi. The company’s activities are curated by Kolomoyskyi’s close associate, former governor of the Odessa region, and now head of the Volyn Oblast Council Ihor Palytsia. In fact, Shaykhet is considered almost Palytsia’s right-hand man (they are fellow countrymen).

Serhiy Shaykhet, the colonel’s son, worked as an investigator in the Pechersk District Department in 2010 and handled the case of activist and blogger Oleksandr Volodarskyi. The latter was detained for simulating sexual intercourse in front of the Verkhovna Rada in protest against the actions of the National Commission on Morality. Volodarskyi accused the young investigator of a number of violations. In particular, the activist claimed that Serhii Shaykhet threatened to plant drugs on him and fabricate false cases on charges of rape and child molestation. Moreover, according to Volodarsky, the policeman did not allow the lawyer provided by the Helsinki Human Rights Group to see him.

On December 7, 2015, Serhiy Shaykhet was dismissed from the police for professional misconduct: he did not pass certification, but he appealed the decision of the certification commission in court and was reinstated.

In December 2016, police major Serhiy Shaykhet headed the investigation department of the Main Directorate of the National Police of Ukraine in the Odesa region. In July 2020, he headed the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Mykolaiv region."

So, Ihor Olehovych has significant family connections. And therefore, the information that his LLC "SIT Security" launders dirty money for Zelenskyy should be taken seriously.

For what merits did Ihor transfer his Audi Q7 car to his brother Serhii, is unknown, but the fact remains:

Everything would be fine if the brother did not wear epaulettes and did not hold a significant position in the police. So the version that Serhiy periodically helps Ihor in solving not just household issues also has strong grounds.

And, probably, it is precisely family ties that allowed Kyiv-based Ihor’s company - LLC "SIT Security" - to win a tender from the Odesa Directorate of "Ukrposhta" for cash collection services on a non-competitive basis.

Surprisingly, in a very saturated security market in Odesa, not a single local company was interested in the tender for 2 million hryvnias, which is why "Ukrposhta" eventually purchased the service through a negotiation procedure.

And the State Audit Service, which monitors almost all tenders for security services in the Odesa region, was completely uninterested in the nuances of the non-competitive two-million hryvnia purchase by "Ukrposhta." The fact that Serhiy headed the Odesa police also somehow escaped the attention of all those involved. Well, there are such coincidences.

Just like the coincidence that with the change of power in the country, Ihor Shaykhet’s company "SIT Security" sharply increased the volume of tenders won:

Mainly these are cash collection services for "Ukrposhta" branches. Not only in Odesa but in other regions as well. But there are other state enterprises, among which there are surprisingly many located in Odesa:

In total, the tender portfolio of LLC "SIT Security" amounts to 76,546,390 hryvnias:

Returning to the multi-million tender winner LLC "SIT Security," it is worth mentioning two more things. First – the barrage of lawsuits it is simply drowning in:

A real flowerbed: criminal, civil, administrative, and economic claims.

Another interesting nuance – the founders of LLC "SIT Security":

Does no one find it odd that one of the founders who contributed almost one and a half million hryvnias to the firm’s statutory capital lists this address? Especially those who should, by virtue of their duty, verify firms winning multi-million tenders without competition.

However, if you recall the beginning of the material and the fact that the president’s collector is backed by the president’s beneficiary, the questions somehow fall away by themselves.