A DJ and a former police officer guarding the skies: how a company from Sheptytskyi, with a capital of 300,000, secured multi-million-pound tenders for drones for the AFU

A DJ and a former police officer guarding the skies: how a company from Sheptytskyi, with a capital of 300,000, secured multi-million-pound tenders for drones for the AFU

The company «Sky Sel Invest», headed by DJ Vitaliy Verkhozin from the town of Sheptitsky in the Lviv region, is becoming a supplier of quadcopters to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

This became known from a media investigation.

The company was founded recently and started receiving tenders worth millions of hryvnias. The founders of the company with a capital of 300 thousand hryvnias are listed as former police inspector of Sheptitskyi Konstyantyn Sydorchuk and Lviv resident Svyatoslav-Illya Bilyak.

Interestingly, Mr. Verkhozin is liable for military service, but he is not going to the front.

«Sky Sel Invest» recently won a tender to supply 100 DJI Matrice 4E to the Vinnytsia City Council for 14.1 million hryvnias.

Interestingly, co-founder Svyatoslav-Illya Bilyak is the owner of the construction LLC «KBB-Bud», which previously featured in dubious schemes.

LLC «KBB-Bud» does not own any cargo or construction equipment.  The company is registered with a Fiat Cinquecento car. Apparently, Stepan Bilyak himself drives it, – according to National Police data, he violated traffic rules on this car.

According to the tender documentation for works at Shyrets Lyceum, LLC «KBB-Bud» rents equipment from sole proprietor Volodymyr Penyuk and LLC «Linso Trans». The first, according to the YouControl service, although engaged in renting construction equipment and preparatory works at construction sites, does not own or use any. He only owns a Mercedes Benz refrigerator van and a Renault Kangoo.

As for LLC «Linso Trans», this company, registered in the village of Davydiv near Lviv, has as its co-owner the brother of the local deputy Ihor Bida. The company owns seven motor vehicles: four of them are trailers, one is a passenger car, one is a dump truck, and one is a tractor unit.

However, after winning the tender in Shyrets, LLC «KBB-Bud» submitted a certificate stating that it rents two loader excavators and two dump trucks from LLC «Linso Trans», and from Volodymyr Penyuk – two more excavators, a mini-loader, and a roller.

As for employees, according to the certificate submitted by the company, it has three workers – a plumber-locksmith, a finishing builder, and a handyman. Also – a foreman-estimator and an electrical installer. Stepan Bilyak’s brother Illia-Svyatoslav Bilyak was responsible for occupational safety at the construction site in Shyrets; he is also the acting director of the company while Stepan Bilyak is mobilized, as stated in the relevant certificate attached to the tender documentation.

The co-owners of the company «KBB-Bud» with a statutory capital of 15 thousand UAH are Stepan Bilyak (66%) and Nataliya Turchyn (34%).

Bilyak was a serviceman. In 2015, a person with the same name, surname, and patronymic was sentenced by the Svatove District Court of Luhansk region under criminal articles to four years of imprisonment with release from serving the sentence on a two-year probation period. The court imposed the probation period due to the accused signing a plea agreement with the investigation.

This concerns a corrupt criminal offense under Part 1 of Article 410 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – «theft, misappropriation, extortion by a serviceman of weapons, ammunition, explosives or other combat substances, vehicles, military and special equipment or other military property, or taking possession of them by fraud» and illegal handling of weapons, ammunition or explosives. In July 2024, Stepan Bilyak was mobilized to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Natalia Turchyn is a Lviv lawyer and entrepreneur. She is a partner in the law firm «Liliya Oprysk and Partners», founded by lawyer and wife of the judge of the Zhovkva District Court in Lviv region Liliya Oprysk.

Natalia Turchyn also owns half of the Kyiv LLC «Prime Wash», which is engaged in car repairs. Her business partner in this matter is Lviv resident Anna Kytzkay, who, according to the YouControl service, owns dozens of apartments and premises in Kyiv and Lviv new buildings constructed by the scandalous company «Galzhytlobud» (new name – LLC «Zhytlo Estate»). Previously, her husband Vasyl Kytskay was among the founders of the company.

We add that many years ago, Nataliya Turchyn worked at the Lviv fat plant. Oksana Bilyak, the sister of Stepan Bilyak and a notary, also worked there at one time.