The farce by NABU regarding the bribe-taking MP Serhiy Kuzminykh

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Whether Serhiy Kuzminykh’s surname will surface in the case of large-scale corruption among representatives of the presidential faction in parliament remains unknown. However, if it does happen, this fact will surprise no one – after all, Serhiy Kuzminykh was one of the first MPs from "Servant of the People" to be caught taking a large bribe shortly after being elected to the Rada.

However, despite his detention and clear evidence, the "Servant" representative has every chance of avoiding punishment – the statute of limitations for his case expires in 2027, and if the case does not reach a substantive court hearing, Kuzminykh will be acquitted due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. Serhiy Kuzminykh clearly understands this, which is why he ignores court summons. For this, he was "severely" punished: as recently as November 24, Kuzminykh was fined a whopping 6 (six) thousand hryvnias.

Of course, this punishment, if it can even be called that, had no impact on Serhiy Kuzminykh’s willingness to appear in court. In general, the bribe on which Serhiy Kuzminykh was caught back in 2022 was widely, thoroughly, and relishfully covered at the time. The details can be found here, but we will briefly remind you of the storyline.

In January 2022, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) accused Kuzminykh of receiving a bribe of 558,000 hryvnias from a private company for facilitating the conclusion of state contracts for the supply of medical equipment to a hospital in the Zhytomyr region.

According to the investigation, the "Servant of the People" member demanded a 30% kickback from the contract amount. In January, he was caught red-handed and later declared wanted for systematically evading the investigation. Authorities detained him in February 2022 after NABU put him on the wanted list, but he was released shortly thereafter.

The case has dragged on for years due to Kuzminykh and his lawyers systematically failing to appear at hearings, changes in defence counsel, procedural delays, and postponements. This has given the media grounds to describe the process as protracted and outright farcical. The statute of limitations for the charges expires in January 2027, and without active court action, he may avoid real punishment.

There have been other scandals involving MP Serhiy Kuzminykh. In particular, numerous articles analyzing the declarations of Serhiy Kuzminykh and his entourage have been published, suggesting that the MP is as poor as a church mouse, while his inner circle lives in luxury. The declarations that Serhiy Kuzminykh is required to submit as an active MP have been described by investigators as just as farcical as the court proceedings against him.

Overall, this is a fairly standard story for a "Servant of the People" representative who burst into the upper echelons of power on the super-popular party brand, which has a significant number of outright freaks and swindlers in its ranks.

Of course, against the backdrop of the latest scandal exposing a group of MPs who openly took money for votes, it was impossible not to mention Serhiy Kuzminykh, although his name does not appear in the NABU report. Perhaps – not yet, or perhaps it will never appear at all. However, the point is not in this, but in the fact that the case of Serhiy Kuzminykh provides serious grounds to believe that this high-profile NABU operation will also turn into an outright farce, with a somewhat predictable outcome.

Such, in brief, is the storyline of Serhiy Kuzminykh’s case. But there is another aspect of this case that has somehow been completely forgotten. Namely – the fate of the companies whose interests Serhiy Kuzminykh promoted for a corresponding reward. Several such companies emerged in his case.

First, there is LLC "Lemberg INC", which Oleh Kuzminykh "promoted" in 2022 for the same 558,000 hryvnias. It was about a tender for the supply of medical equipment to Zhytomyr Hospital No. 2. This company changed its name in 2024 – to LLC "Lumenta" – and its beneficiary, who became a citizen of Moldova, Teodor Butnaru.

How these changes are related to the 2022 "kickback" for Serhiy Kuzminykh can be speculated. Moreover, these speculations should take into account the fact that LLC "Lumenta" still wins fairly expensive tenders for medical institutions, including those in Zhytomyr: last year alone, the company received almost 18 million hryvnias from the state budget, winning seven tenders. Including – two million from Zhytomyr Hospital No. 2.

In this regard, it should also be noted that Serhiy Kuzminykh continues to feature in scandals related to procurements for Zhytomyr hospitals. Although these scandals do not result in detentions or official charges, their existence cannot be ignored.

Secondly, in the scandal with that old "kickback," LLC "Ivens" was also implicated. It also won tenders for the renovation of Zhytomyr hospitals and belonged to Ihor Salko, who, by a curious coincidence, is a co-founder of several public organizations together with Serhiy Kuzminykh.

At this point, Ihor Salko has stepped down as a beneficiary of LLC "Ivens," but the company continues to win tenders related to healthcare in the Zhytomyr region. However, after Ihor Salko left the company, the tender amounts have significantly decreased. Whether these facts are connected remains an open question.

Thirdly, another company linked to the MP’s name is LLC "Maximum Ef". It does not impress with the amounts of won tenders but is interesting for another reason – the beneficiary is listed as Maksym Tokovyi, and the manager with limitations is none other than Ihor Salko.

According to data from the "YouControl" service, the company’s VAT payer certificate has been revoked at this point. This most likely means that LLC "Maximum Ef" is being prepared for liquidation, but in 2020-22, LLC "Maximum Ef" had quite interesting financial indicators. For example, in 2022, with a revenue of 16,349,700 hryvnias, the net profit was 4,100 hryvnias. That’s 0.025%. Other years are not much different. Which is not even funny, but somehow slipped past the attention of tax authorities.

The secret of such "blindness" is simple – the "beneficiary" of LLC "Maximum Ef," Maksym Tokovyi, is Serhiy Kuzminykh’s driver. This company is also interesting for another reason – until 2024, its owner was listed as Iryna Karavan, an assistant to Serhiy Kuzminykh. She became the "owner" of the company in 2019 when Serhiy Kuzminykh received his mandate as a "Servant of the People." At that time, the company was also purchased, though it bore a different name: LLC "Pharmliky." By the way, note the truly fantastic increase in authorized capital: from 50 hryvnias to 760,000 hryvnias.

All of this cannot be called anything other than a farce. Everything is a farce: Serhiy Kuzminykh’s "career catapult," thanks to which a small entrepreneur from Zhytomyr became an influential MP from the presidential party and immediately decided to convert this position into cash; his declarations, in which his underage daughter buys an apartment for two million, and an unknown woman named Svitlana Prystay lends Serhiy Kuzminykh her "Mercedes," while the MP’s wife rides a moped. The amounts and reports of companies associated with Serhiy Kuzminykh listed in the declarations are also a farce.

And the pinnacle of this farce is the criminal case in which Serhiy Kuzminykh was caught red-handed during the transfer of a bribe. He was even on the run for some time. But after he was caught, instead of being sent to a detention center, he calmly took a seat in the Verkhovna Rada and continues to influence the fate of a country bleeding from conflict, while Ukrainian courts, instead of sending the unbridled "Servant of the People" to prison, issue him "gigantic" fines of six thousand hryvnias...

All of this is a huge farce, where representatives of the authorities openly mock the citizens of Ukraine. And therefore, unfortunately, the next loud "fizzle" from NABU will also be a farce, regardless of whether Serhiy Kuzminykh is mentioned in it or not. This, of course, is sad, but it is a fact.