Secretary of Kyiv’s Mayor Klychko — Volodymyr Bondarenko: connections, criminal case and property

Secretary of Kyiv’s Mayor Klychko — Volodymyr Bondarenko: connections, criminal case and property

In December 2020, the deputies of the Kyiv City Council elected a secretary by voting for the representative of UDAR, the long-time advisor to Vitaliy Klychko — Volodymyr Bondarenko.

His career path is directly associated with Vitaliy Klychko:

• On October 25, 2020, Bondarenko was elected to the Kyiv City Council from the UDAR party in the single electoral district. He is the head of the commission for assessing corruption risks in the activities of the Kyiv City Council.
• On September 18, 2020, the UDAR party held pre-election party meetings in Kyiv and published the list of candidates for the city council. Bondarenko was included in the list at number 8.
• From 2014 to 2017, he worked as the head of the KCSA apparatus.
• In 2013-2014, he was an assistant to Vitali Klitschko in the Verkhovna Rada.
• In 2012, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada of the 7th convocation from UDAR, number 77 on the party list, but was not elected.
• From 2007 to 2013, he was an assistant to Vitali Klitschko in the Kyiv City Council.

One of the most high-profile scandals involving Bondarenko was diploma forgery, due to which he was dismissed from the position of head of the KCSA apparatus.

In August 2014, after Vitaliy Klychko was elected as mayor, his right-hand man (Volodymyr Bondarenko) moved without a competition and special check from the position of parliamentary assistant to the Kyiv City Administration, where he became the head of the apparatus and one of the main speakers of the city government.

On social networks, Bondarenko indicated that he has a higher legal education and graduated from the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. However, based on archival documents, it was established that Volodymyr Bondarenko (born on January 26, 1985) did not complete his studies in Lviv and did not receive a diploma from this university. Based on this alleged diploma, he received higher education at the Institute of Postgraduate Education of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

After the loud statements from journalists and politicians, the National Police became interested in him and opened a criminal case.

After the prosecutor’s investigation, Bondarenko was dismissed from the KCSA. Although he stated that he resigned himself.

Already in January 2018, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv relieved Volodymyr Bondarenko from liability for using a forged diploma due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

If you study his asset status for 2020, you can find out that he and his family own:

• An apartment in Kyiv of 82 sq.m, which belongs to his wife (25%) since 1998;
• An apartment in Kyiv of 45 sq.m, which is rented by Bondarenko and belongs to the territorial community of Kyiv;
• He rents an office in Kyiv of 286 sq.m, which since January 2020 belongs to Oleksandr Nezdolya. A person with this surname is a founder of LLC "Bud-Invest Market," which in 2011 Klychko extended the lease agreement for a land plot in Kyiv for the construction of a shopping and entertainment center;
• A garden house in Kyiv of 229 sq.m, and a plot of land of 599 sq.m, which Bondarenko temporarily uses with family members. Both the house and the land belong to Anzhelika Layenko, who owns them since April 2020. A person with this surname is a founder (50%) of LLC "Ukrainian Certification Agency," which is mentioned in a criminal case №12017000000001548 from 22.11.2017 regarding the embezzlement of budget funds allocated in 2017 to medical institutions for the purchase of medical devices by possibly forging conformity certificates;
• A Toyota Camry (2011), used by Bondarenko, with the balance holder being the Municipal Enterprise "Motor Transport Enterprise of the Kyiv City Council’s Executive Body."

In 2020, Volodymyr Bondarenko earned 431.4 thousand UAH:

• 401 thousand UAH — from entrepreneurial activity;
• 29 thousand UAH — in the KMR secretariat;
• 1.4 thousand UAH — a gift in non-monetary form.

And his wife Oksana — 200 thousand UAH as a salary from the Kyiv Municipal Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet for Children and Youth.

The Bondarenko family keeps in cash:

• $21.3 thousand;
• 270 thousand UAH;
• €3.4 thousand.

There is 13 thousand UAH in bank accounts.

Such an interesting biography and a strange declaration, from which it is not clear how much the politician pays for the rent of the real estate where he lives. The fate of the huge office of 286 sq.m is also unknown. And, in principle, it is impossible to understand what the secretary lives on, although this should have long interested the tax and law enforcement authorities.

Andriy Pshenychnyi for the site dubinsky.ua