What did NABU catch the "overseer" of Kyiv Denys Komarnytskyi and Kyiv officials for?

On February 6th, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) boasted a “rich catch.” Detectives uncovered a criminal group created by former Kyiv City Council deputy Denys Komarnytskyi.

The ex-deputy status is not the main thing about Komarnytskyi. In wide circles, he is better known as the "overseer" of the construction and infrastructure sector in the capital. He earned this honorable "title" due to his influence in land and real estate matters in Kyiv.

Businesspeople working in construction and city officials have spoken at length to EP about Komarnytskyi’s methods and scale of operation. They always specify that all abuses are legally backed, done privately through intermediaries, so "catching anyone red-handed is impossible."

NABU managed to catch the main figure, officials of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA), and even a Kyiv City Council deputy. The most unfortunate for the participants of the group is that they were caught on a relatively minor "scheme." What exactly?

Who is Denys Komarnytskyi

For at least five years – from 2019 to 2024 – the former politician, businessman, and lawyer Denys Komarnytskyi controlled the construction and infrastructure market of Kyiv. At least that’s what informed interlocutors of EP among developers, politicians, and KCSA officials repeatedly said.

Komarnytskyi acted as the curator of a significant portion of the primary real estate market, and companies associated with him won municipal tenders for the repair and construction of housing and infrastructure facilities.

The informal status of "overseer" was earned by Komarnytskyi in 2019, squeezing out Vadym Stolar from this position. The latter lost influence after a reputational scandal related to the change of power in the country in 2019.

At that time, the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Bohdan, tried to replace Vitaliy Klychko in the position of the head of the KCSA with someone from the team of the newly elected president, and Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk stated that he would be pleased to dismiss Stolar instead of Klychko, but he doesn’t have an official position.

Komarnytskyi was the leader of the "Leonid Chernovetskyi Bloc" faction in the Kyiv City Council from 2008 to 2010, and the closest ally of the then-mayor, a business partner of former son-in-law of Chernovetskyi Vyacheslav Suprunenko.

Suprunenko and Komarnytskyi were suspected of an armed attack on a lawyer in 2005. According to the investigation, they attempted to seize documents with data on property fraud concerning Komarnytskyi and Suprunenko. In 2011, Komarnytskyi was detained, and Suprunenko was put on the wanted list. In 2012, Komarnytskyi received a two-year suspended sentence.

How Komarnytskyi helped developers and earned himself

What was Komarnytskyi’s role and function? He provided legal and "conceptual" support for bureaucratic processes related to the allocation of land plots for construction, the transfer of municipal enterprises for construction, ensuring the required number of Kyiv City Council deputies’ votes for decisions in favor of developers. For this, he received fees or a stake in the project.

EP explained this in more detail on the example of land near the "Pyrohovo" museum. According to the text of the "conceptual" (an unofficial memorandum on housing construction with commitments of the parties), partners spent 4 million dollars to obtain "Urban Planning Conditions and Restrictions" (a key document that gives the right to build) for one of the plots. This document is issued by the department of urban planning and architecture of KCSA.

The further approval of the detailed territory plan at the Kyiv City Council session, changing the purpose of the land from agricultural to "for construction," passing an examination, obtaining a construction permit, and putting it into operation would cost the partners another 16 million dollars.

Instead, Komarnytskyi received a 6.6% stake in the project, which was recorded under a front person. As a result, all potential future profits from apartment sales in the complex will be divided among the partners in the proportions stated in the register.

All this work was assisted by "his" people in positions within KCSA and loyal deputies of the Kyiv City Council, says a deputy off-record. "Kyiv City Council is a pragmatic body. Deputies vote for land decisions for various reasons. Some are on developers’ payroll, some trade their votes for barter, and some for money," explains an EP interlocutor.

In 2021, in an interview with UP, Klychko confirmed that he met with Komarnytskyi. At the same time, he assured that talks with the ex-ally of Chernovetskyi didn’t concern the real estate sector or obtaining construction permits. The mayor added that he previously discussed this with Stolar.

A textbook example of Komarnytskyi’s activity in infrastructure construction is the Podilskyi bridge. In 2017, the city signed a contract to complete the bridge with "Eko-bud-treid," which later turned out to belong to Komarnytskyi.

The tender amounted to 6 billion UAH. The estimated cost of the construction project in 2021 rose from 11.251 billion UAH to 19.922 billion UAH.

Kyiv City Council deputies, either seriously or jokingly, told EP that Komarnytskyi’s team called the bridge a "breadwinner." These words are confirmed by numerous statements from the prosecutor’s office and the Antimonopoly Committee regarding this object:

• collusion during auctions;
• tax evasion 9 million UAH;
• budget losses of 4.5 million UAH;
• embezzlement of 155 million UAH;
• attempt to misappropriate 3 billion UAH;
• embezzlement of 36 million UAH;
• embezzlement of 6 million UAH;
• overestimated equipment rental costs by 104 million UAH;
• overpriced sand by 6.5 million UAH.

What NABU found out

On the evening of February 6, NABU detectives announced suspicions and detained seven members of the scheme. According to EP sources, bureau detectives handed suspicions to the deputy mayor Petro Olenych, the head of the permanent commission of the Kyiv City Council on architecture, urban planning, and land relations Mykhailo Terentyev, and Kyiv City Council deputy from "Batkivshchyna" Olena Marchenko.

Komarnytskyi himself was not detained. According to EP sources, he is abroad. He had the right to leave the country because he is the father of four children.

Investigators managed to prove that these individuals took "full control" of decision-making procedures on granting land rights and seized Kyiv land for construction purposes.

The scheme uncovered by NABU is called the "toilet" scheme. It looked like this.

The scheme participants found an empty land plot in communal ownership. They built a toilet cabin, shed, or just a small structure without any functional purpose. A legal entity controlled by the scheme participants registered ownership of this shed.
Then the company appealed to the Kyiv City Council to give it the plot under this shed for its maintenance. Often, the size of these plots exceeded the "toilet" itself by thousands of times. According to the letter of the law, the Kyiv City Council was obligated to fulfill this request. Subsequently, a new building would arise on this spot.

"Kyiv City Council deputies and KCSA officials, some of whom were part of the criminal organization and some were under its influence, ensured decision-making on granting appropriate land rights, for which they received unlawful benefits in payouts and real estate objects," NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office reported.

Approval of such decisions was under the complete control of the members of the criminal organization: "necessary" persons received land rights, while others faced artificial obstacles and had to turn to the criminal organization members for help, investigators found out.

NABU managed to confirm information from EP interlocutors: Komarnytskyi had significant influence on processes within the Kyiv City Council and KCSA, such as the actions of officials, appointments to high positions of loyal individuals, dismissal of controlled officers, allocation of budget funds in their interests. He maintained ties with a broad circle of influential people, including KCSA deputies, Kyiv City Council deputies, the head of the land commission of the Kyiv City Council, and others.

The decision-making center, including in the land area, was located in the IQ Business Center on Bolsunovska Street, where issues were resolved with the participation of top city officials and other influential persons. By the way, this business center houses the offices of Komarnytskyi, developer entrepreneur Stepan Chernovetskyi, owner of KAN Development Ihor Nikonov.

Detectives gathered evidence in a case where land in central Kyiv belonging to the territorial community was withdrawn in 2023-2024, valued at "only" 11.6 million UAH, and a bribe offer to deputy Marchenko constituted "only" 100,000 dollars for more lucrative cases.

EP contacted Olenych’s press service for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication. In an interview with EP, Olenych explained that the "toilet scheme" is a loophole in the legislation.

"When questions arise about the legality of the appearance of a ’shed,’ we file a complaint in court. The court cancels – and the issue is closed. Another case is when the property is legal. The property is small, and the plot they ask to allocate is large…" explained Klychko’s deputy.

If the owners have old unregistered Soviet acts, they refer to "black notaries," register them, and then approach the Kyiv City Council asking to allocate the land.

According to Olenych, if refused, the "toilet" owners would then go to court and be recognized as land users without a Kyiv City Council decision.