Corruption schemes in the KCSA: how ecologists sold pollution permits

Corruption schemes in the KCSA: how ecologists sold pollution permits

The National Police continue to investigate the facts of unlawful benefits received by officials of the Kyiv City Administration for issuing permits for emissions of pollutants into the air.

A year and a half ago, law enforcement officers sent a case to court regarding the former deputy head of the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration (in May 2023, the Kyiv City Council renamed this department to the Department of Environmental Protection and Adaptation to Climate Change) and two of her accomplices-businessmen who had organized the receipt of such bribes from more than a dozen companies, ranging from 500 UAH to 1000 UAH per emission source. Already at the end of 2024, the same facts led to a notification of suspicion for the head of this "environmental department" of the Kyiv City State Administration, Oleksandr Voznyi (pictured), as he is believed to have been one of the organizers of the scheme and created artificial obstacles for entrepreneurs to obtain permits free of charge. Currently, this official is under nighttime house arrest but has not been suspended from his duties in the Kyiv City State Administration as the investigators wanted. The Kyiv City Administration calls the investigation "political persecution."

As KV has learned, law enforcement agencies in Kyiv continue the investigation into the acceptance of bribes from officials and former officials of the Kyiv City State Administration for issuing permits for emissions of pollutants into the air.

These facts are being investigated by the Main Investigative Department of the National Police of Ukraine as part of a criminal case No. 12023000000001982, opened on October 26, 2023. The suspects in this case are preliminarily accused of crimes under five articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

• Article 236 – violation of environmental safety rules;
• Part 2, Article 364 – abuse of power or official position causing grave consequences;
• Part 2, Article 364-1 – abuse of authority by an official of a legal entity under private law causing grave consequences;
• Part 3, Article 368 – acceptance of an offer, promise, or receipt of undue benefit by an official for whom the subject was a large undue benefit or committed by an official holding a responsible position, or by prior conspiracy of a group of persons, or repeatedly, or combined with extortion of undue benefit;
• Part 3, Article 369 – offer, promise, or provision of undue benefit to an official if the undue benefit was given to an official who holds a responsible position, or committed by prior conspiracy of a group of persons.

What is known to law enforcement officers

During the investigation, law enforcement officers established that as of no later than August 2021, the head of the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration and his then-deputy, Maryna Tishchenkova, who simultaneously held the position of head of the Environmental Protection and Environmental Impact Assessment Department in the same department, "developed criminal intent for obtaining undue advantages from business entities for issuing permits for emissions of pollutants into the air by stationary sources." According to the National Police, these individuals further developed a plan to commit the crime, involving Iryna Mykhaylova, the then director of LLC "SIA Eco alliance," and Oleksandr Kochnev, an employee of LLC "Waste Management Center," who were close to them.

According to the investigation, under this plan, the senior officials of the "environmental" department of the Kyiv City State Administration were, in particular, to coordinate the actions of the crime participants and determine the amounts of undue benefit to demand from business entities for approving emission permits. To this end, they developed a kind of "tariff grid" – an algorithm to determine the undue benefit amount that entrepreneurs were to pay.

For example, if entrepreneurs had between 1 to 5 emission sources, the bribe amount was 1,000 UAH per source, for 6 to 10 sources – 800 UAH per source, for 11 to 20 sources – 600 UAH per source, and for 21 to 50 sources – 500 UAH per source.

Screenshot of the court decision on this investigation dated December 19, 2024

It seems that the role of the LLС "SIA Eco alliance" director was mediation: she communicated with entrepreneurs via messaging in Telegram, providing them with bank account details to which they had to transfer bribes for expedited and unimpeded permit issuance.

In these interactions, she represented herself as an "eco-consultant" and used a pseudonym for conspiracy purposes. Specifically, she reminded entrepreneurs of their debts "for our consultations" (communication was conducted in Russian – KV), highlighted that no more than 5 thousand UAH should be transferred within one bank transaction, and the entrepreneurs, in turn, reported back on the payment transfers. In addition, she kept records of issued permits and the undue advantages paid for them.

Fragment of correspondence between "eco-consultant" and entrepreneur (photo by the National Police)

As for the employee of LLC "Waste Management Center," according to investigators, he withdrew cash transferred by entrepreneurs from ATMs and handed it to members of the crime group. Meanwhile, the investigation has not yet established who collected the permits signed by Oleksandr Voznyi’s deputy and the "paid" businesses from the administrative service center.

Overall, the investigation found evidence of bribes for permits issued to at least 11 business entities: LLC "V80," LLC "Komfortna-Oselya," LLC "Green-Apex," SC "State Fuel Company ’Masma’," LLC "Rys Invest Group," LLC "Lux System," LLC "KF-Systems," JSC "Kyivgas," ME MGS in Holosiivskyi District, PJSC "Kyiv River Port," and SC "ITERTECH".

The exact total of bribes received from these legal entities is not specified in the State Court Register or law enforcement reports – the latter only states that such "assistance" cost up to 20,000 UAH per enterprise. Some additional details are mentioned in court rulings for this investigation – they state that the LLС "Waste Management Center" employee withdrew a total of 56.2 thousand UAH in undue advantage from some entrepreneurs.

In June 2023, law enforcement completed the pre-trial investigation concerning the deputy head of the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration, the director of LLC "SIA Eco alliance," and the employee of LLС "Waste Management Center" – this was done as part of another criminal case opened back in 2020. The indictment against them is being considered by the Irpin City Court of Kyiv Region – these actors are charged with receiving bribes and aiding in obtaining undue advantages (evidently, this involves Oleksandr Kochnev – KV). The nearest court hearing in this case is scheduled for February 25, 2025.

Meanwhile, as mentioned above, on December 13, 2024, a suspicion of receiving undue advantage (Part 3, Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, up to ten years of imprisonment) was handed to the Director of the Department of Environmental Protection and Adaptation to Climate Change of the Kyiv City State Administration (the new name this department received in 2023 – KV) Oleksandr Voznyi as part of the aforementioned criminal case from 2023. Law enforcement officers concluded that he "created artificial obstacles for entrepreneurs for free permit acquisition" by returning prepared document packets for revisions under contrived pretexts. Subsequently, on December 19, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv imposed a precautionary measure – "night-time" house arrest (from 11:59 PM to 5:00 AM) on the suspect until February 13, 2025.

Notification of suspicion to Oleksandr Voznyi (photo by the National Police)

On the same day, the same court denied law enforcement the satisfaction of their request to remove Voznyi from his position as director of the "ecological" department of the Kyiv City State Administration. Law enforcement justified this request by stating that this official has influence over witnesses working in the Department of Environmental Protection and Climate Change Adaptation of the Kyiv City State Administration, which could impede the pre-trial investigation. Additionally, law enforcement believes that while holding the position, Oleksandr Voznyi could commit other corruption offenses.

The investigators explained this version by stating that in June 2024, this official was notified of suspicion of official negligence (part 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) in another criminal case, and in September of last year, the Desnianskyi District Court of Kyiv received an indictment against Voznyi under the same article. The court rulings do not specify what exactly the violations committed by this official were (if the suspicion and indictment refer to different proceedings). It’s known only that in the proceedings where an indictment against Oleksandr Voznyi has already been drafted, law enforcement had complaints about the unit he headed in relation to inadequate protection of one of the objects of the natural reserve fund of Kyiv.

Nevertheless, law enforcement was unable to convince the court. Apparently, during the court session, Oleksandr Voznyi stated that he considered the suspicion unfounded, that he oversees 17 communal enterprises, and that his removal from the position would in no way affect the criminal case. The accused also noted that his former deputy, who is currently accused of the same facts, was dismissed back in 2022, and he maintains no connections with her.

It should be noted that the Kyiv City State Administration’s press service called the notification of suspicion to Oleksandr Voznyi "another attempt to pressure the city authorities and persecution for political reasons." They claim that the text of this suspicion "does not contain any substantiated evidence of the official’s involvement in the case under investigation."

"The Department of Environmental Protection and Climate Change Adaptation of the Kyiv City State Administration is interested in a transparent and impartial investigation and is ready to cooperate with law enforcement agencies. The Director of the Department will prove the baselessness of the accusation of his involvement in the case in court," - according to the Kyiv City State Administration’s press release on December 13, 2025.

Features - what is known about them?

According to the analytical system Youcontrol, LLC "SIA Eco alliance" was registered in Kyiv in November 2012, but in February 2024, the company changed its name to LLC "Varro Trading" and place of registration - it was re-registered in the city of Polonne, Khmelnytsky region. Since then, the head of this LLC is stated to be Jamshidbek Umurzakov, a citizen of Uzbekistan, and the founder is the British company "Extra Venture LTD." The aforementioned Iryna Mykhailova headed LLC "SIA Eco alliance" from October 2020 to December 2021.

Meanwhile, earlier, from 2013 to 2019, the director and co-founder of this company was Maryna Tishchenkova - the aforementioned former deputy of Oleksandr Voznyi. After this LLC, she worked for some time as the director of the Department of Environmental Assessment and Control of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine. Information about the current place of work of Maryna Tishchenkova is absent in open sources, but it is known that in spring 2024 she filed an income declaration as the deputy director of ME "Foodservice" of the Feodosiiv village council of the Obukhiv district of Kyiv region.

LLC "Waste Management Center" was registered in Kyiv in July 2012. Currently, its director is Viktoriya Chekhovska, and its founder and ultimate beneficiary is Kyiv resident Iryna Mamitko. However, the most interesting fact is that from 2017 to 2021, a co-owner of this company was indeed the director of the Department of Environmental Protection and Climate Change Adaptation of the Kyiv City State Administration, Oleksandr Voznyi.

This LLC is a regular participant in tenders for the disposal of various wastes held by state and Kyiv city structures. According to the public procurement analytics system Clarity Project, from 2016 to 2024, "Waste Management Center" participated in 510 tenders and won 313 of them for a total amount of 20.6 million hryvnias. One of the main clients of this company at one time was the Department of Education of the Sviatoshyn District State Administration (DSA) of the city of Kyiv - 8 contracts for waste disposal amounting to about 7.2 million hryvnias.

Let us also remind you that, according to sources of KV, all the hazardous waste of LLC "Waste Management Center" is stored (or was stored) in the village of Fastivets, Fastiv District, Kyiv Region, where hazardous medical, radioactive and toxic waste is stored, and their further fate remains unknown.

Meanwhile, this company has previously been mentioned in "criminal chronicles." For example, in the case №42018100000000808 of August 17, 2018, law enforcement officers investigated the facts of issuing licenses to carry out activities in the field of hazardous waste management to those companies that do not have the necessary material and technical base for such activities. In addition, according to the investigation, the above-mentioned state structures carried out insufficient control over compliance with the relevant licensing conditions, etc. Among such companies was also mentioned LLC "Waste Management Center." However, the current fate of this criminal proceeding is unknown; the "latest" court decision in this case was handed down in February 2020.

It should be noted that the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources was once part of the Department of Urban Improvement and Preservation of the Natural Environment of the Kyiv City State Administration, but at the end of 2016, the city council made it an independent unit. Later, in May 2023, the Kyiv Council renamed this department the Department of Environmental Protection and Climate Change Adaptation. Some lawmakers pointed out that this was nothing more than "rearranging furniture in a familiar house."

For several years now, this structural unit has been responsible for several metropolitan communal enterprises. The most scandalous among them are undoubtedly MA "Kyivzelenbud" and ME "Pleso," whose activities are regularly of interest to law enforcement agencies. Every year, they open several criminal cases on the "cutting" of tens of millions of budget hryvnias during work in city parks, near water bodies, etc. This often leads to the issuance of suspicions to officials of these enterprises and their contractors and even to the drafting of indictments. But in most cases, the figures of such cases avoid responsibility for various reasons – most often due to the expiration of the deadlines for the investigation.

As for Oleksandr Voznyi, he became the head of this management-department on January 11, 2021, succeeding Oleksandr Savchenko (the latter managed this unit after the dismissal in May 2020 of Andriy Malyovanyi, who headed the department from July 26, 2018). At the same time, Voznyi is a civil servant with significant experience.

From 1998 to 2011, he worked in the tax police of Kyiv, after which he was an advisor to the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources for some time. Subsequently, in 2011-2013, Oleksandr Voznyi headed the State Administration of Environmental Protection in Kyiv - the structure that was part of the Ministry of Ecology and whose functions after liquidation were transferred to the Kyiv City State Administration. During Voznyi’s "reign," this body approved large land plots near the natural reserve fund of the city, in particular - "blessed the plundering of Trukhaniv Island." During this period, criminal proceedings were opened against the deputies of Oleksandr Voznyi and the heads of the departments of this structure for various crimes, but the head of this office then came out of the water unscathed.

In 2013-2014, Voznyi worked as a chief specialist in preventing and detecting corruption at the State Environmental Inspection, and from 2015 to 2021, he dealt with affairs of the aforementioned LLC "Waste Management Center."

As KV wrote 12 days before appointing Oleksandr Voznyi as the head of the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration, it was he who headed the State Administration of Environmental Protection in Kyiv when scandals erupted with the "plundering" of Trukhaniv Island’s lands and the "loss" of the Dnipro’s coastal protective strip projects. It was already known then that Voznyi’s company (LLC "Waste Management Center") was engaged in the disposal of hazardous waste at public expense on questionable grounds.

It should also be recalled that the capital’s ecology field has been overseen for about a decade by Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration Petro Panteleyev. According to KV, he proposed to the city mayor that Voznyi be appointed to a responsible position based on the results of an interview, without conducting a competition.

Ivan Kulyk KyivVlada