A corruption scheme with military supplies worth hundreds of millions. A team of Ukrainian and Bulgarian journalists revealed how Russian citizens with a phantom Bulgarian company delivered unfit bulletproof vests and camouflage clothing to the Ukrainian army for 86 million euros. The money was invested in real estate in Bulgaria and luxury living on the Cote d’Azur. The company does not report the profit to the tax authorities, but has bought the historic building of the Paris Hotel on the navel of Sofia and restored it.
An employee of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense probably colluded with persons from Russia to supply the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) with tens of thousands of non-standard bulletproof vests and dubious military uniforms. This cost the Ukrainian budget approximately 2 billion hryvnias ($47.2 million), and the vests turned out to be unusable, which became clear only after they were sent to military units. Slidstvo.Info have access to the official investigation material that proves these allegations in detail.
The journalists also got military uniforms, and with the help of experts they confirmed their poor quality. Together with colleagues from BIRD.BG, they revealed details about the Bulgarian company supplying the jackets and bulletproof vests, which is currently being investigated in Ukraine. Specifically, the official investigation alleges that the Russian-owned Bulgarian firm transferred more than 1 million euros ($1 million) to the account of the ex-wife of a Defense Department official, who has since fled Ukraine and is hiding from investigators. The former employee refused to comment on this transfer and did not give answers to journalists’ questions.
Squeaky, miserable camouflage
“It’s like the worst of Shanzhai. The man who produced these things was in such a hurry that he didn’t have time to look,” says Anna Suvorkina, an engineer at the Veteranka workshop, as she examines a military jacket. She has been sewing clothes for the Ukrainian armed forces for more than 2 years and says that she has never seen a jacket of such poor quality. Journalists of the Slidstvo.Info brought her a new winter jacket for examination, which was given to a soldier of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
“A lot of noise. This is important because when people sneak into the front line, they need to be noticed at the last minute,” Suvorkina said.
She notes that both the fabric and the threads used for sewing are very cheap and of poor quality.
On the label of the jacket she examines, you can see “Mimaltemer LTD”. This is a Bulgarian company that, according to documents reviewed by Slidstvo.info, supplied almost 50,000 such jackets and trousers to the Ukrainian army in 2022-2023.
In January 2023, soldier Dmytro “Kalinchuk” Vovnyanko published a post on Facebook in which he pointed out the poor quality of the trousers given to him. There is also a photo with a label with the name of the Bulgarian company Mimaltemer LTD.
“This is a label from the pants that were given to me in December 2022… The only pants I received were made of camouflage fabric like a raincoat insulated with fleece. First, they just keep too hot indoors. The boys take them off and stay in thermal underwear. Secondly, the fabric of these pants creaks so much that you can hear them at least 20 meters away. These are trousers for the army, you know? Camouflage…”, the soldier wrote, stressing that the issued uniforms were “miserable” and unfit for war.
“This is an ordinary synthetic winterizer (polyester wool – note. Ed.). It is quite thin, of poor quality, it quickly breaks and tears,” Anna Suvorkina, an engineer at the Veteranka workshop, continues the review of the jacket.
Her conclusion is that sewing this jacket took an hour and a half or two. According to documents obtained by Slidstvo.info journalists, each set of such winter uniforms, consisting of jackets and trousers, costs 170 euros ($175).
According to the court register, there is currently no official investigation into the jackets and trousers of dubious quality supplied by the Bulgarian company to Ukraine. However, there are several documents for bulletproof vests delivered by the same Bulgarian company “Mimaltemer”. Many have been delivered – about 80,000 pieces. But later, when they were sent to the Ukrainian soldiers, the examinations carried out during the official investigation showed that they were not fit for combat conditions.
Bulgarians with Russian roots
On March 5, 2022, when the Russians were still trying to capture Kyiv and attacked Ukraine from all directions, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine signed a contract with the Bulgarian company Mimaltemer LTD for the supply of 30,000 bulletproof vests. Over the next 2 months, another 52,000 bulletproof vests were agreed with the Bulgarians, which were then desperately needed. Subsequently, nearly 50,000 sets of military uniforms were ordered and paid. In total, according to documents reviewed by Slidstvo.info, the Bulgarian company received 86.5 million euros ($91 million) in 2022, 78 million of which were for bulletproof vests and 8.5 million for army uniforms.
Mimaltemer is registered in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. During the first agreements with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense in the spring of 2022, the owner was Isa Izrailovich Merzhoev. According to Russian databases, he has a valid Russian passport. In May 2022, when the EU and Ukraine began imposing sanctions on Russian owners, French citizen Oksana Merjou became the new director and owner of the company. A deeper study of Russian databases revealed that Oksana Merzhoeva (née Kaznacheeva) had sons with Isa Merzhoyev, and that they were all registered at the same address in Moscow for a long time. Both Oksana, Isa, and their children own several companies in Russia and do business there at least until 2022.
It was with her that on September 13, 2022, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine signed an agreement for the supply of almost 50,000 sets of winter clothing, a jacket of which was examined by Slidstvo.Info together with an expert. Oksana Merzhoeva did not respond to journalists’ calls.
Bulletproof vests unsuitable for war
Together with our Bulgarian colleagues from the investigative project, BIRD.BG found that the company Mimaltemer itself, according to the register from 2021, officially has one employee. Therefore, it could hardly have produced 80,000 bulletproof vests in the 5 months that elapsed from the first contract to the first delivery, even if hundreds of workers were urgently hired. The answer to the question of how they did it was found in the registry of the court:
“Report on the results of the visit of the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine PERSON_13 to the Republic of Turkey, according to which the latter, together with PERSON_5, in the period from January 30, 2022 to February 1, 2022, communicated with representatives of Nurol Teknoloji, which are manufacturers of bulletproof vests supplied by MIMALTEMER LTD.”
In other words, according to the court’s decision, on the eve of the full-scale invasion, employees of the Ministry of Defense traveled to Turkey, where the manufacturer of bulletproof vests presented the Bulgarian company as an intermediary.
We checked the customs protocols for purchases from the Turkish company. In the winter of 2022-2023, when the second contract for the supply of bulletproof vests was being implemented, the Bulgarian company purchased them at a price of about $600 per piece: two plates for $160 each and one ballistic vest for $273. Meanwhile, as shown by the court register, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense bought these vests for €800 ($824) each. This is a significant profit margin from vests that are considered unfit for military use, according to the official investigation. In one of the court decisions, we found a clarification that an expert examination carried out during the official investigation confirmed that these vests could not be used by the army. This damages both the budget and Ukraine’s defense capability.
“PERSON_9, PERSON_13 and PERSON_5 are reasonably suspected of misappropriation of funds by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine… when purchasing personal protective equipment that cannot be used by the fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for its intended purpose, which, according to experts… is in a causal relationship with the decline in the combat capability of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the decision says. We have identified all three who are anonymized in the court register. But more on them later.
“You were provided with the best bulletproof vests”
Shortly after receiving the money from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Merzhoev’s company, according to documents from the official Bulgarian register, bought a hotel in a 19th-century building in central Sofia for 1.7 million euros ($1.8 million). The building is currently being renovated. Journalists from BIRD visited the building and learned from the builders that the cost of this renovation could reach 5-6 million euros (5.2-6.2 million dollars). Also in March 2023, Mimaltemer bought an apartment in the Bulgarian capital with an area of 112 sq. m. meters for 350,000 euros ($360,542).
Slidstvo.info spoke on the phone with Isa Merzhoev, former head of Mimaltemer. He claimed that he had not heard any complaints about the jackets supplied by Mimaltemer. “I don’t know what jacket they gave you,” says Merzhoev. “Two years have passed since the delivery of the jackets. And according to the Vienna Convention, which your Ukraine signed, no one has the right to comment on anything about quality in 2 years,” he stresses.
Isa Merzhoev also insists that the bulletproof vests delivered to Ukraine are of the highest quality and there have been no inflated prices.
“You are equipped with the best bulletproof vests made by Turkey. 20,000 pieces of these vests were reserved as a reserve for the Turkish army,” Merzhoev assures. “Your people in Ukraine stole 2,500,000 bulletproof vests and provided false documents for customs clearance. Your people exchanged bulletproof vests and sold bulletproof vests. It was the mafia operating in Ukraine. No wonder the Americans say that there is corruption there. There is not a single case of anyone killed because of these bulletproof vests. Your investigator took used bulletproof vests and made an examination of them,” Isa Merzhoev said. He promised to provide documents confirming his accusations against the Ukrainian side, but after three weeks of communication, they are still missing. In a conversation with our journalist, he also emphasizes that he would never allow even a low-quality bulletproof vest to enter Ukraine and that he has his own accounts to settle with Russia, since he is a Chechen.
Meanwhile, in response to a Slidstvo.Info inquiry, the Prosecutor General’s Office (although they did not answer several questions related to the official investigation) noted that the bulletproof vests of the Bulgarian company were indeed unfit for use. “During the pre-trial investigation, based on the results of forensic ballistic and commodity examinations, it was found that the bulletproof vests purchased from the company specified in your request (Mimaltemer) do not meet state or NATO standards and therefore cannot be used for their intended purpose,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said in its response.
Family Friends
We also learned from the court register that the Merzhoev family has been on friendly terms for many years with an employee of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, who played a key role in the supply of bulletproof vests and jackets.
“The head of the logistics development department of the Central Directorate for the Development and Support of Material Support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, PERSON_19 who directly selected MIMALTEMER LTD as a future supplier, has been on friendly terms with the director of the said company for at least the last 7 years.”
“PERSON_19 and his family members, including his wife and daughter, left the territory of Ukraine in 2022 and live in Nice, Republic of France. At the same time, when opening accounts with Credit Agricole, the daughter indicated ADDRESS_6 as her address of residence.”
We checked the real estate of the Merzhoevi in the French state register. We find out that Isa Merzhoev’s son Mimalt owns a company called Azur. Its co-owner is a Ukrainian citizen, born in 2000, Evgenia Vdovichenko.
In the register of declarations under the name “Vdovichenko”, we find Hennadiy Pavlovich Vdovichenko, who in 2021 held the position of head of the department for the development of material support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As an additional confirmation in his previous declarations, we find his daughter Evgenia.
In addition, we have opened a divorce case from 2016 against Natalia Vladimirovna Vdovichenko in the court register. She is entered in the court register as the “ex-wife of the ADDRESS_6” of Vdovichenko himself. According to the official investigation, it was to her accounts that part of the money for the bulletproof vests was transferred.
“Part of the funds received by MIMALTEMER LTD from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine… in the amount of EUR 1,180,000.00 ($1,260,000) in the period from 05.04.2022 to 12.05.2022 were transferred to the account of the ex-wife of PERSON_19 opened with Credit Agricole,” the decision says.
“Vdovichenko, whom you are talking about, was involved in the escort of cargo (an order of the Ministry of Defense for a Bulgarian company – editor’s note),” explains Isa Merzhoev. “When the war broke out, Vdovichenko’s wife… (no one knew whose wife she was, but we knew Vdovichenko before because our children played tennis). When this wife of Vdovichenko called, it turned out that Vdovichenko, who worked with us under a contract, was married to her at that time. Asked if his son and Vdovichenko’s daughter own a joint venture in France, Merzhoev said that “if they want, they will have a company, and if they don’t want to, they won’t.”
Slidstvo.info was unable to contact either Natalia Vdovichenko or her daughter Evgenia. Former Defense Ministry official Gennady Vdovichenko himself, in a written comment to journalists about the transfer of more than 1 million euros ($1 million) from the accounts of the Bulgarian company to the account of his ex-wife, answered as follows: “This question does not concern me. I advise you to seek clarification from those involved.”
Minus 2 billion hryvnias from the budget
According to the message on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Hennady Vdovichenko is already wanted as a fugitive from the investigation. He is accused of two crimes at once – misuse or misappropriation of property through abuse of office. He is also accused of obstructing the lawful activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which led to the death of people or other serious consequences. The most severe punishment under these articles is 15 years in prison.
Hennady Vdovichenko answered the questions of the Slidstvo.info in writing. He, like Merzhoev, claims that he has no information about jackets of dubious quality and insists that bulletproof vests are quite good.
“The claims of the Ministry of Defense against the Supplier are only for a small part of the delivered goods (13,000 bulletproof vests), while the claims against former employees of the Ministry of Defense cover the entire amount under the two supply contracts (95,000 bulletproof vests). Indeed, the figure looks impressive, which gives the media a reason to talk nonsense,” Vdovichenko wrote. “The vests seized by SBI have been used and operated by military personnel for more than a year and may have been subjected to various physical and mechanical stresses (falls, blows, etc.) during their use, loading, unloading and transportation. Moreover, there may have been cases when military personnel replaced ballistic plates with those from other suppliers or with their own. The above factors could significantly affect the final results of expert analyses.”
In response to Slidstvo.Info, Vdovychenko also claimed that he had left Ukraine legally and had attended every court hearing. However, he did not give details about the reasons for his departure or plans to return home.
The court register mentions not only Vdovichenko, but also three employees of the Ministry of Defense. So, we entered Vdovychenko’s name on the judiciary’s website and found a case that had been transferred to the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court a few months ago. Here we see the defendants Shapovalov, Khmelnitsky and Vdovichenko.
It appears that the Prosecutor General’s Office has accused these former employees of the Ministry of Defense of embezzling nearly 2 billion hryvnias ($47.2 million). “The equipment was purchased at inflated prices with 100% prepayment,” says the announcement of the transfer of the case to the Supreme Administrative Court. And further: “Former officials accepted personal protective equipment without verification and delivered low-quality products to the military warehouses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to the conclusions of expert analyses, the equipment does not meet the state and military standards of Ukraine, nor the technical requirements for the purchase of various types of body armor, and cannot adequately protect Ukrainian military personnel with appropriate equipment with personal protective equipment worth nearly 2 billion hryvnias.”
It should be emphasized that, according to the documents reviewed by Slidstvo.Info, the amount transferred by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine to the Bulgarian company Mimaltemer amounts to a total of 86.5 million euros, which, at the average exchange rate of 2022, when the funds were transferred, amounts to nearly 3 billion hryvnias ($ 91.1 million).
Tax-free in Bulgaria
The huge amounts received by Mimaltimer Ltd. under the contracts with Ukraine are missing from the available annual financial statements of the company. According to them, it has a modest activity with several thousand leva turnover per year.
The large-scale real estate acquisitions are also not taken into account – the emblematic building of the Paris Hotel on Slivnitsa Blvd. Princess Maria Louisa, which is now undergoing major repairs worth tens of millions of levs. The emblematic Sofia building of arch. Naum Torbov from the beginning of the 19th century was an abandoned and dangerous ruin, but Mimaltimer promises to restore it to its former splendor of historical real estate.
Vitaliy Kononuchenko, Anna Babinets /Slidstvo.info/, Atanas Chobanov /BIRD/
Lead collage: Slidstvo.info
Материалът Russians with a Bulgarian company stung Ukraine with 170 million and bought the iconic building of the Paris Hotel in Sofia е публикуван за пръв път на BIRD.
