Criminal "Riviera": the investigation regarding construction companies from the entourage of MP Strikharskyi continues

The National Police is investigating possible violations of the law during the construction of the residential complex (RC) “Riviera” on Tsentralna Street and Malozemelna Street (Osokorky residential complex, Darnytskyi district of Kyiv).

Law enforcement officers have established that the developers exceeded the maximum permissible number of storeys of the constructed buildings (they built up to 10 storeys instead of 4) and on dubious grounds “added” a residential and commercial space to one of them. It is a big question whether the investigation will have any practical results. In 2016-2017, law enforcement officers already tried to prove that the construction of the said complex with the help of officials of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) grossly violated the law, but everything “came to naught”. Perhaps because the development companies are associated with the people’s deputy from the Servant of the People faction Andriy Strikharskyi (in the collage).

Currently, law enforcement agencies are conducting an investigation into possible violations during the construction of the Riviera residential complex on Tsentralna Street and Malozemelna Street.

We are talking about criminal case No. 4202110207000020, which was opened by the Darnytsia Department of the National Police of Kyiv on September 3, 2021. The preliminary legal qualification of the crimes committed by the defendants in the case is abuse of power by an official of a private legal entity, regardless of its organizational and legal form.

During the investigation, law enforcement officers established that officials of BK Bud LLC and other business entities built residential buildings with a total of 10 floors on Tsentralna Street, 19, 21, 21-a, Malozemelna Street, 75, 75-a, 75-b, 75-v, 75-g, 75-d – despite the fact that the Urban Development Conditions and Restrictions (UDR) for design provided for a maximum of 4 floors. At the same time, according to the investigation, the said persons were in collusion with officials of various structural divisions of the Kyiv City State Administration (KMDA).

Screenshot from the court decision on the said proceedings

The National Police also found out that officials of BK Bud LLC, abusing their official position, began illegal construction of a residential and commercial building with a total area of 3.2 thousand square meters on ul. Tsentralna, 21-B. Apparently, we are talking about adding four floors to an already built residential building.

Residential complex "Riviera" on the map

During January-February 2022, the Podolskyi District Court of Kyiv, at the request of law enforcement officers, seized the said completed floors - so that their owner could not dispose of this property (including selling it) until the end of the investigation. However, on April 28, 2022, the Darnytskyi District Court of Kyiv, at the complaint of LLC "BK" Bud ", lifted the seizure of these premises. The official reason for this was that when seizing, law enforcement officers indicated the wrong EDRPOU code of the owner of this property - the same LLC "BK" Bud ".

Journalists decided to analyze the history of this complex and identify the people involved in this production.

Construction scandals

On May 27, 2010, the Kyiv City Council, by nine decisions, transferred nine land plots on Tsentralna Street and Malozemelna Street with a total area of 0.9 hectares to the private ownership of nine individuals. At that time, the city authorities decided that all this land should be used “for the construction and maintenance of residential buildings, outbuildings and structures.” During April-May 2011, these citizens received state acts of ownership of the said plots.

According to the “Defence of Poznyaky-Osokorky from Total Development” group on Facebook, over the next five years, all of these plots were resold several times to other individuals. One of the “interim” owners of this land (or part of it) in November 2015 was Raisa Strikharska – this is the name you need to remember later. In addition, it seems that the plots in question were combined and divided into new plots during this same period.

As reported by the above-mentioned group, further, during December 2015 – March 2016, LLC BIK Bereznyakyzhytlobud received permission from the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate (GASI) to conduct preparatory work for further construction of apartment buildings on Malozemelna St., 75-a, 75-b, 75-v, 75-g and 75-d, as well as on Tsentralna St., 19, 21 and 21-a. At the same time, it became known that this project would be called the Riviera residential complex. There is no information in open sources on what grounds the said company disposed of the land plots – it seems that either LLC BIK Bereznyakyzhytlobud was another “intermediate” landowner, or it received the right to develop this land under a superficies agreement. In March 2016, the new owner of this land became LLC “BK “Bud”, and then this company began “again” to collect all the permits necessary for the construction of the residential complex. However, this was preceded by close attention from law enforcement officers.

Thus, on May 15, 2016, the Main Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine (GPU) opened criminal case No. 12016100090005628 on the fact of various violations during the construction of the Riviera residential complex. At that time, law enforcement officers assumed that officials of various government agencies who issued permits for work on the specified territory could have committed crimes under various articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Including abuse of office (Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). At the same time, law enforcement officers believed that this was done for the purpose of obtaining an undue benefit. At that time, the GPU did not investigate this case very actively, and more or less constructive steps took place after the developers received new permits.

In June 2016, the above-mentioned group “Defence of Poznyaky-Osokorky from Total Development” reported that work on the specified territory was already underway – despite the fact that the developers did not have all the necessary “papers” “on hand”. In particular – the State Institution for the design of the development and the permit for the construction itself. Also, the corresponding post indicated that the plots in the area of Malozemelna-Tsentralna Street, in accordance with the General Plan of Kyiv, by their functional purpose belong to the zone of green spaces for general use. In this regard, according to the activists, the Kyiv City Council had no right at all to transfer them to private ownership for the construction of residential buildings. In addition, the activists reported that this land is located in a flood-prone area (the flooding of the territory is 1% in full).

According to the materials of criminal proceedings, on July 19, 2016, the Department of Urban Development and Architecture of the Kyiv City State Administration issued LLC “BK “Bud” GUO No. 611/16/12/009-16 for the design of construction of semi-detached residential buildings at the address ul. Tsentralnaya, 19, 21, 21-A and ul. Malozemelna, 75, 75-A, 75-B, 75-V, 75-G, 75-D. There is no information in open sources about the main initial data of this document - the registry of GUOs, which is administered by the aforementioned department, began working only in mid-2017. However, as indicated in the court decisions, the Kyiv City State Administration allowed planning the design of 4-storey buildings on the specified territory.

According to the portal "Nerukhomi", during December 2016 - June 2017, GASI issued 9 permits for the construction of the aforementioned buildings, and also registered changes to them. According to these permits, construction was planned in nine stages. The customer and general contractor for these works was LLC "Status Bud-Plus" - again, apparently, on the basis of a superficies agreement. In June 2017, GASI issued declarations of readiness for operation of the buildings of the first eight stages to the developers - it seems that such speed was due to the fact that most of the work had been completed by the time the permits were received. According to the portal "LUN", we are talking about 4 buildings with 6 and 10 floors.

In parallel with this, law enforcement officers continued the investigation within the framework of the above-mentioned case No. 12016100090005628 of May 15, 2016. In the spring of 2017, GPU investigators established that the construction of the Riviera residential complex was taking place on sites that were not intended for such work. In addition, law enforcement officers learned that the developers were building 10-story buildings, not 4-story ones, as envisaged by the Municipal Development Organization. On May 26, 2017, the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv, at the request of the GPU, seized the sites under construction - so that their owner could not dispose of them until the end of the investigation. However, already on June 14, 2017, the Kyiv Court of Appeal satisfied the complaint of LLC “BK “Bud” to lift the arrest – the servants of Themis listened to the company’s arguments on the illegality of taking such measures in relation to its property. This was the end of the activity of the law enforcement officers – not a single guilty verdict was received by the defendants in the said proceedings.

After that, the scandals around the Riviera residential complex died down for a while, and the developers of this residential complex continued their work. According to the Clarity-Project portal, in the fall of 2021, BK Bud LLC received several declarations of readiness from the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate for the reconstructed non-residential commercial premises at 21-B Tsentralnaya Street - it seems that they were talking specifically about the aforementioned completed floors.

As for the latter, the public first began to actively talk about them a month earlier - in August 2021. Then, Kyiv resident Volodymyr Hutsul wrote on his Facebook page that developers were building additional floors in one of the already erected buildings in the specified complex - by that time, there were three completed floors. Vladimir Gotsul called this a "dangerous experiment" and predicted that the specified building could begin to "crack and fall apart." He also pointed out that the extension work was being carried out with complete disregard for any safety rules, since there is a sidewalk under the building where people constantly walk, and next to the building there is a road with heavy traffic, including passenger traffic. Obviously, the information from this post was the reason for opening a new criminal case in September 2021, which was mentioned above.

Influential Beneficiaries

According to the analytical system Youcontrol, the capital’s LLC "BK "Bud" (owner of the land under the residential complex "Riviera") was registered in March 2015. The founders and ultimate beneficiaries of this company are listed as Kyiv residents Petro Zadorozhnyi and Serhiy Dubovchuk, who is also the official director of this LLC.

Status Bud-Plus LLC (customer and general contractor of the construction) was established in May 2016 in Kyiv. As of January 2019, the company’s activities were officially terminated. The last director and founder of Status Bud-Plus LLC was Maksym Rohlev from Kyiv.

Kiev LLC "BIK "Bereznyakyzhytlobud" (former developer of the residential complex "Riviera") was founded in December 2005, and in October 2017 the company’s activities were officially terminated. The last founder and director of this LLC was listed as a resident of Kyiv, Yevhen Samoylenko.

The implementation of the Riviera residential complex project and the companies involved in it can be clearly linked to the person of Andriy Strikharskyi, a people’s deputy of the current 9th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada (elected in the 196th constituency (Cherkasy region) from the Servant of the People party). It is noteworthy that he is a member of the Temporary Investigative Commission for the investigation of corruption in the state architectural and construction control and supervision bodies, created by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on September 15, 2020. In April 2022, Stikharskyi became the chairman of the Working Group of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Organization of State Authority for the development of acts on housing policy and providing citizens with housing, including those who lost it as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation.

According to media reports , the above-mentioned Raisa Strikharska was "registered" with him at the same address, and was also the ultimate beneficiary of OOO BK Bud in 2016-2017. Andriy Strikharskyi himself was the founder of LLC BIK Bereznyakyzhytlobud in 2005-2016. In addition, the former ultimate beneficiary of LLC Status Bud-Plus, Yuriy Barshchevskyi, is currently the head of LLC BK Market, and the official owner of the latter company is the above-mentioned Petro Zadorozhnyi.

The development company Status Group, under whose brand the Riviera residential complex was built, is also associated with Strikharskyi - he was or still is the head of its supervisory board. The said developer has 7 residential complex projects in its portfolio in Kyiv - both built and under construction.

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