Andriy Puziychuk: an unknown billionaire in the passing part of Tymoshenko’s party

Andriy Puziychuk: an unknown billionaire in the passing part of Tymoshenko’s party

In the electoral list of "Batkivshchyna," at the final passing position — number 21 — appears a politically unknown figure, Andriy Puziychuk.

The annotations to the list state that he is the founder of the "Kyiv Construction Company" and the head of the Chernihiv branch organization of "Batkivshchyna."

In reality, Andriy Puziychuk is the son and brother of a prominent Kyiv developer and contractor for school and municipal building repairs. Andriy’s father Viktor Puziychuk and his brother Vitaliy, through a series of commercial structures, particularly the company "Fundament," are closely linked to the business of the former head of the Kyiv City Administration’s construction and housing department, Mykhailo Halytsya, as well as with his son-in-law, Kyiv City Council deputy, Mykola Nehrych.

Before January 2016, when Vitaliy Klychko handed control of construction in Kyiv to a man from Leonid Yurushev’s circle — Oleksandr Spasybko, former "Kyivmiskbud" head Halytsya was considered the sole manager of all city funds allocated for construction and repair works.

Puziychuk’s firms managed to secure contracts worth several billion hryvnias from Halytsya via the municipal enterprise "Zhytlobudinvest" (school repairs, kindergartens, parking construction).

In 2018, to balance Yurushev’s influence, Klychko appointed Halytsya’s associate, the longtime director of "Zhytlobudinvest," Vyacheslav Nepop, as deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration. This resulted in "lucrative" orders again flowing to the Puziychuk family.

This enabled Andriy Puziychuk to finance the Chernihiv branch of "Batkivshchyna," headed by Valeriy Dubil. Gradually, Dubil shifted the financial burden entirely onto the Kyiv developer’s shoulders, but in return recommended him for the list. Where Puziychuk, with a significant additional payment, secured a position at the "equator" of passability.

It is said that additional support in securing his spot on the list was provided by Yevheniya Tymoshenko, who in the mid-2000s was an active player in the Kyiv construction market and intersected with the Puziychuks in business.

Millions of Halytsya & Co

The municipal "Zhytloinvestbud" distributed over a billion in favor of firms close to its own manager, the former director of "Kyivmiskbud," and his "striking" developer son-in-law.

Recently, there was another controversial personnel reshuffle in the Kyiv City State Administration. Oleksandr Spasybko, the longtime manager of construction firms from Leonid Yurushev’s group — a VIP developer inclined towards hotels and business centers, was appointed as the head of the Department of Construction and Housing.

Considering that since July, Ihor Nikonov, best known as the owner of the construction company "K.A.N," has been serving as the mayor’s first deputy, it indicates a complete change in the distribution of forces at the capital’s construction site.

How the new budget managers will behave remains to be seen, as there is currently nothing to observe: due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, capital construction expenditures are prohibited. However, we can now assess what was happening in Kyiv’s municipal construction market, controlled for the last several years by Mykhailo Halytsya’s group. He headed the very same KCSA Construction Management for 14 years, where Yurushev’s man will now be in charge. Besides, Halytsya is a longtime Kyiv City Council deputy, former director of "Kyivmiskbud," and now a candidate for parliament, against whom the popular "Petro Poroshenko Bloc" inexplicably did not nominate a candidate in district ¹208 (Chernihiv region, Bakhmach).

We do this for two reasons. Firstly, it is a story worth a billion. Secondly, rotation is rotation, but it’s "don’t rush to bury" either. But more on that later.

The Triad

There exists in the capital a municipal enterprise "Zhytloinvestbud-UKB." In short, it was created to distribute contracts for the construction of buildings, kindergartens, parking lots, etc.

This enterprise has been consistently headed since its inception in the early 2000s by Vyacheslav Nepop. He is a business partner of Halytsya’s wife Valentyna in the LLC "UKB Capital Construction Management" and the servicing cooperative "Lisove Ozero."

The triumvirate also includes Kyiv City Council deputy from "UDAR" Mykola Nehrych, Halytsya’s business partner in the construction firm "Geos Development." Nehrych is also married to Halytsya’s daughter, who is likewise a member of the aforementioned "Lisove Ozero" cooperative along with Nepop.

Since the establishment of the "State Procurement Bulletin" in 2008, the municipal "Zhytloinvestbud" published its tenders for 3.047 billion UAH.

One-third of these funds — 1.018 billion UAH — were executed by two related firms: LLC "KZHK" of a certain Viktor Puziychuk and its subsidiary LLC "Azur Group." Additionally, KZHK also marked its presence in the tenders of municipal "Kyivmiskbud," receiving contracts worth 66 million UAH, and "Azur" received 390 million UAH from the SSU for housing construction for law enforcement officers.

Thus, this pair of firms took from tenders almost one and a half billion. Why were these companies so lucky with tenders? Perhaps the clue lies in the fact that Puziychuk is not completely foreign to Halytsy`a’s group. This is eloquently evidenced by the stories of two more construction firms.

Fundamental Connections

Viktor Puziychuk has a son — Vitaliy Puziychuk. Currently, he is a co-owner of the firm PJSC "Fundament" (23%). Back in 2008, this firm, as reported by "Dilova Stolytsya," allegedly attempted an "unfriendly takeover" and to protect against this, the company’s board and staff sold 90% of the stock to friendly investors, and the supervisory board was then chaired by Vyacheslav Nepop himself. A year later, the same "Dilova Stolytsya" reported that among the investors who bought the majority of "Fundament’s" stakes was none other than Halytsya himself, at that time head of the construction department of the KCSA, which oversees "Zhytloinvest."

We combed through all available data from SMIDA about the owners and officials of "Fundament," and found: at least over the past four years, the partners of Puziychuk junior in this firm include a number of individuals truly directly connected with "Zhytloinvestbud," Nepop, and Halytsya.

For instance, 23% of "Fundament’s" shares are owned by Anzhelika Kovalyova, the head of the administrative and personnel department of "Zhytloinvestbud."

Another 23% share of "Fundament" until spring this year belonged to someone named Viktor Shuster, a business partner in the construction company "Kyivbudmontazh" with Mykola Nehrych — the same one who is Halytsia’s son-in-law.

Also noteworthy are a few intriguing figures in "Fundament’s" Supervisory Board. Firstly, it is headed by Viktor Belych, whose previous position before appointment in 2012 was as an advisor to the director of "Zhytloinvestbud-UKB." Secondly, in 2011 Alla Okolnych, who was simultaneously Nepop’s deputy at "Zhytloinvest," worked on "Fundament’s" audit board. Her previous place of work was as an accountant at "Kyivmiskbud," which we will address a bit later.

Interestingly, "Fundament" has not won tenders over the last six years. But it hasn’t been left out. Remember the infamous story with the renovation of the Shevchenko Museum in Kyiv? The tender for 30 million UAH was held as open bidding, and in November, the contract went to the firm "Inbud." However, only by the old-good tradition "Inbud" was not yet officially selected as the winner, but the news already showed how the work on site was in full swing. It turned out that in early summer, the museum decided to commence preliminary work and allowed two firms to participate — those being "Inbud" and "Fundament." They later became the sole contenders for the official tender. An intriguing nuance in this story: the museum itself was not the one conducting the renovation tender, as per KCSA’s decision, the client was appointed to be none other than Nepop’s "Zhytloinvestbud."

But let’s get back to the Puziychuks and their ties with the powers that be. The second story will discuss another not-so-pleasant episode of "biting away" at "Kyivmiskbud’s" House-Building Combine ¹3.

Personal "House-Building"

In 2010, when Halytsya took over "Kyivmiskbud," DBC-3 was 56% owned by this municipal holding. By 2012, when Halytsia left "Kyivmiskbud," the municipal owners possessed only 30% of the house-building combine.

According to the judicial register, the new shareholder became a Cypriot firm "Roycap Trading Limited." And the leading bodies of “DBC-3” immediately included representatives from Puziychuk’s circle:

Supervisory board member Viktor Vlasenko, director of the newly established clone of KZBK — LLC "BG KZBK,"

Supervisory board member Mykola Doychev, whose son Yevhen Doychev is director of PJSC "Subcontracting," which is 78% owned by Vitaliy Puziychuk,

Supervisory board member Vadym Chumachenko, director of "Roycap," who headed the same "Subcontracting" in 2011-2012.

Head of the audit committee Vira Barbolina, former chief accountant of "BG KZBK,"

Audit committee member Valeriy Huliy, previously chief engineer and deputy director of the parent "KZBK,"

Audit committee member Vitaliy Sulimov, former chief accountant of the parent "KZBK."

In short, at that time, they surrounded the combine from all sides. Meanwhile, during Halytsia’s tenure, not only did the aforementioned group of Puziychuhcks encroach on DBC with bites, but KZBK of Puziychnuk senior also won tenders of the "Kyivmiskbud" of Halytsya totaling 66 million UAH.

There is another interesting coincidence in the story with "Kyivmiskbud." Among the holding’s staff, such a name as Mykhailo Puziychuk, head of the planning and economic department of the Finance and Economics Department, repeatedly appears on the official website. We managed to find only one person with such a name, a Kyiv resident named Mykhailo Puziychuk. He hails from the village of Rubizhivka, Zhytomyr region. The same birthplace as our KZBK owner — Viktor Puziychuk. We cannot assert a family connection between the two Puziychuks, we only note that Rubizhivka’s population is 89.

We have no idea how much of the 1.5 billion UAH in tender funds the KZBK and "Azur" went into construction versus what became profits. However, we do have a charming last fact that reminds us — the adventures of the characters in this story on the capital’s construction site aren’t over yet.

Last week, an agenda item appeared in the Kyiv City Council regarding the transfer of a 0.3 ha plot on Drahomanova Street in Poznyaky in lease for 10 years to a certain LLC "Office Center ’Poznyaky’" for the construction and operation of an administrative institution (project decision). The owner and director of this company is the same Vitaliy Puziychuk.

This land was supposed to be voted on Thursday, October 9. The city council did not physically manage to get to it — they held up too long, only for the night to arrive. However, since this item would still appear on the agenda at the next session, we still visited that plot on Drahomanova Street.

Behind the fence, we managed to spot a partially poured foundation and beaten reinforcement. Construction of the business center there actually began back in 2010, as noted on the information board. Also written on it is: the developer — KZBK, and the client — Darnytska District Administration represented by KP "Poznyaky-Invest." And that’s despite us not finding such a tender in the "State Procurement Bulletin."

Someone might say that we are dissecting old debris. Indeed it is so. But if the law enforcement and lustrators do not deal with these old piles today, tomorrow even more will pile on top and from the sides. At least, the ground for a new heap has already been prepared.

Lesya Ivanova, "Nashi Hroshi"