Embezzlement and fake declarations: law enforcement officers have notified top managers of “Kyivzelenbud,” Bohush and Mahalov, of suspicion

One made “green” money landscaping the capital’s parks, the other hid assets worth UAH 9.6 million. Law-enforcement officers have brought fresh suspicions against two deputy general directors of the municipal enterprise “Kyivzelenbud” at once — the former one, Mykola Bohush, and the current one, Arshak Mahalov.

"The Telegraph" has looked into the latest “schemes” uncovered at the capital’s municipal enterprise and learned the names of the new figures in the criminal cases.

How green spaces are turned into private feeding troughs

While the official “Kyivzelenbud” resources are full of bright photo reports about the opening of yet another “Klychko bridge” on Obolon and plans to develop so-called “pocket” squares, law-enforcement officers are consistently showing the other side of the municipal enterprise’s activity. The capital’s crime chronicle proves that it is precisely on these green recreational areas, so beloved by city authorities for PR, that some top officials of the municipal enterprise have been earning their illicit fortunes for years.

How the former management inflated prices on park renovations

The other day the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office reported the exposure of a large-scale corruption scheme around “Kyivzelenbud” that was organised back in 2024. According to the investigation, the fraudsters set up a clear mechanism for embezzling budget funds during capital repairs and improvement of four well-known locations in the capital at once: Nivky, Orlyatko, Radunka and Yunist parks.

Seven members of the organised group have been notified of suspicion in the criminal proceedings. Among the officials of the municipal enterprise are the former deputy general director of “Kyivzelenbud” (whom investigators consider a co-organiser), the deputy head of a department and a leading specialist of the cost-estimation unit. Together with them, the actual owner of the contractor company and three of its employees have come under the spotlight of the security forces.

Notice of suspicion in the case of embezzlement in Kyiv parks. Photo: Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine

Investigators traditionally do not name the suspects, but “The Telegraph” has established that the person who at the time held the post of deputy general director is Mykola Bohush.

The essence of the scam, as evidenced by the data of the criminal proceedings, was the deliberate and significant overstatement of the cost of building materials — granite tiles, concrete, metal mesh and electrical cables.

According to investigators, the pre-inflated documentation was first run through the ostensibly loyal private firm LLC “First Construction Expertise”. After receiving the required conclusions, Bohush ensured victory in the open tenders for a specific contractor — LLC “Region 11”.

Later, after the successful transfer of funds under the padded estimates, the budget millions were promptly withdrawn and converted into cash through a chain of affiliated shell companies. The fraudsters used classic cash-out tools, each company playing a purely transit role in the overall scheme: LLC “Tediroks” (former name “Beventus”), LLC “Tioney”, LLC “Atletekh” and LLC “Bud-Complete”. The total proven damage to the capital’s community in this episode alone amounted to almost UAH 3 million.

How the scheme worked. Infographic by “The Telegraph” made with AI

Golden stairs

One of the episodes charged against Bohush and Co. is the repair of stairs in Nivky Park. Local Kyiv residents know that this story dates back to 2023. The first tender for the arrangement of the stairs, worth UAH 6.13 million, was won by the already mentioned LLC “Bud-Complete”.

Stairs in Nivky Park with a total cost of UAH 15 million. Part of which, it seems, was simply stolen

As a result, the company completed only part of the work, claimed it had overspent UAH 2 million, demanded the debt from “Kyivzelenbud” and… vanished. And the stairs, as the media wrote, simply crumbled — the repair had clearly been done poorly.

In August 2024 a new tender was held — another UAH 7 million for “a set of anti-landslide measures” after the work done by the previous contractor. This time LLC “Region 11” won; the contract on behalf of “Kyivzelenbud” was signed by Mykola Bohush. Yet during construction almost UAH 1.5 million of municipal money disappeared.

The essence of the “anti-landslide” scam turned out to be banal — everything rested on a threefold markup on granite tiles. By signing fictitious acts, the fraudsters included in the estimate the cost of granite at UAH 2,700 per square metre, although the real market price was only UAH 920.

Under just two payment orders “Kyivzelenbud” transferred almost UAH 4 million to the accounts of LLC “Region 11”. As a result of this simple manipulation with granite “squares”, investigators believe, Mykola Bohush and his accomplices pocketed UAH 1,437,434 in net profit siphoned from the capital’s budget.

Fragment of the court ruling in the embezzlement case at “Kyivzelenbud”

It is worth noting that LLC “Region 11”, on which the scheme relied, has already managed to win tenders worth more than UAH 130 million since 2024. Interestingly, the latest orders, according to Prozorro data, the company received from the National Police. For example, a tender for the repair of a toilet worth UAH 618 thousand in April this year. The owner and director of the company (and, obviously, one of the suspects in the case), according to YouControl, is Serhiy Prokofyev.

The company was caught embezzling, yet it still wins National Police tenders. Screenshot

The other companies mentioned — LLC “Tediroks”, LLC “Tioney”, LLC “Atletekh”, LLC “Bud-Complete” — are linked by the names of their managers and founders.

Thus, at the time of the scheme, Oksana Parkhomchuk was among the founders of LLC “Tediroks”. Although from February 2025, i.e. when law-enforcement officers became interested in the company’s activities, the firm was re-registered to Karim Asolat Ismatzoda. “The Telegraph” previously wrote about him — he is one of the so-called “elk”, to whom companies entangled in criminal stories are usually transferred.

Oksana Parkhomchuk was also previously (until September 2024) listed for LLC “Bud-Complete”, which was later transferred to Oleksandr Volokhin. Meanwhile, Oksana Parkhomchuk is still indicated as the official owner of LLC “ATLETEKH”.

In turn, the owner of the fourth of the mentioned companies — LLC “Tioney” — is currently listed as Serhiy Parkhomchuk, who is simultaneously the chief accountant of LLC “Bud-Complete”.

What the current deputy Mahalov hid from the NACP

While the prosecutor’s office is untangling the schemes of the former management involving the capital’s parks, the current deputy general director of “Kyivzelenbud” — Arshak Mahalov — has come into the sights of the National Police and the Kyiv Prosecutor’s Office.

Deputy General Director of

Deputy General Director of “Kyivzelenbud” Arshak Mahalov, who is accused of false declaration worth UAH 9.6 million

And now investigators have officially notified him of suspicion, recording that the cheap foreign car was only the tip of the iceberg. A full audit confirmed that the official, according to investigators, deliberately concealed property and finances totalling UAH 9.6 million in his 2023 report.

As anti-corruption officers found out, the current top manager of the capital’s main park authority simply “forgot” to include a whole range of significant assets in the document:

Elite unfinished construction: an unfinished garden house in Kyiv with an area of almost 280 square metres, whose real value is estimated at more than UAH 8.6 million;
Income from a car: UAH 700 thousand earned by the official on the sale of a vehicle;
Bank debt: financial obligations to a financial institution amounting to more than UAH 224 thousand.

Now the forgetful official will have to explain to investigators how he could accidentally hide from supervisory bodies a two-storey capital residence worth the budget of a small village.

Interestingly, the official’s wife, Larysa Mahalova, who works as director of the Kyiv Contact Centre, also once demonstrated wonders of financial ingenuity. Following her husband, she included in her 2023 declaration a SEAT Leon car for the same ridiculous UAH 5 thousand, while its market value was from USD 8 thousand.

Journalists of “Slidstvo.Info”, who last year called the official to ask about the secret of such cheap purchases, never managed to reach her. Moreover, in her next report these cars, together with income from their possible sale, disappeared just as mysteriously as her husband’s Audi.

Old sins

Mahalov himself, or rather the private enterprise “Remdorstroy servis”, in which he was officially considered a co-founder, had already been involved in a high-profile scandal involving the embezzlement of budget funds. As the media wrote, the National Police began investigating machinations around the capital repair of Vernadskyi Boulevard back in 2017, for which in October 2016 “Kyivzelenbud” allocated about UAH 1 million to “Remdorstroy servis”.

As investigators found out, in December 2016 officials of the enterprise fully paid the contractor and signed the certificates of completed works, although the actual repair was carried out only on paper. The most piquant detail in this story was that Mahalov, who had contributed money to the authorised capital of the winning company in March 2016, at the time of the tender simultaneously owned a stake in this private company and, since May 2015, officially headed the district enterprise for the maintenance of green spaces subordinate to “Kyivzelenbud”.

Mahalov himself, although he was a co-owner of the contractor company, then avoided charges. The main figure was the then deputy general director of “Kyivzelenbud”. The case then almost reached the final stage — consideration of the charges. But the main figure, the same deputy head of “Kyivzelenbud”, went to serve in the army and the case was suspended. And Mahalov himself later took his place.

Mahalov is currently appealing the NACP conclusions regarding false declaration, which, in particular, formed the basis of the investigators’ suspicion. However, if he fails to prove the origin of the property, he may face the dock and his property may face confiscation.

As these examples show, the paradox of “Kyivzelenbud” remains unchanged: personnel in the offices are renewed, but the “circulation of embezzlement” in the capital’s parks and manipulations with declarations continues without stopping. It seems that only real court verdicts and confiscation of hidden millions can break this vicious chain. But will we live to see that?