FARMTR Turks “threw” the Ministry of Defense with bulletproof vests
Back in March, the Turkish company undertook to supply the Ministry of Defense with 30,000 bulletproof vests – it received the money, but did not fulfill the contract
No money, no armor: the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine cannot return the UAH 600 million that it paid to the Turkish FARMTR for bulletproof vests for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Dealers from Turkey received funds back in March, but the contract has not yet been fulfilled – so every eighth Ukrainian fighter is left without vital ammunition. Who profits from the tragedy of millions of Ukrainians? And is there a “Russian trace” here? Investigated by StopKor journalist Artem Polikovsky.
With the start of a full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, the number one task of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine was and remains to provide Ukrainian defenders with everything necessary. Consequently, all procurement and delivery processes have been simplified as much as possible in order to urgently sign contracts and receive critical products in the shortest possible time.
“The procurement procedure itself has been simplified, because defense goods can be purchased under a simplified procurement procedure and it is possible to purchase simply by reporting on the concluded contract. This is done in order to be able to meet the needs of defense as quickly as possible.”, — notes the lawyer, analyst Anastasia Bondarenko.
Who exactly supplies the goods of critical need for the Ukrainian “defense industry”?
Turkey has been and remains one of Ukraine’s key partners after the United States, since many local businessmen have partners in Ukraine and were ready to provide a wide range of military products manufactured according to NATO standards.
“Ukrainian entrepreneurs and volunteers who had the necessary connections, experience in international agreements, financial opportunities, and most importantly the desire to help their country, were given instructions to conduct relevant negotiations from Ukraine. Such persons actually assumed the functions of coordination between suppliers and recipients of defense products“, – says journalist Artem Polikovsky.
However, not all foreign partners were virtuous.
In March, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine signed a contract for the supply of 30,000 body armor for 16.6 million euros (or about UAH 600 million) from Turkish company FARMTR TARIM HAYVANCILIK TICARET VE SANAYI LIMITED SIRKETI. As it turned out later, this is an agricultural company whose main specialization is the cultivation of vegetables and the construction of greenhouses.
In addition, Turkish journalists found that from the very beginning, the so-called agrarians were not able to fulfill the terms of the contract, because they did not have bulletproof vests in warehouses at all, as well as contracts for their production. However, the Turkish businessmen promised the MOU to ship ammunition within 5 days.
Funds for ammunition were transferred to the Turkish company FARMTR
The main representative of the interests of this supplier in Ukraine was a former employee of the Ministry of Defense and one of the ex-directors of Ukroboronprom, Servin Yakubov.
According to StopKor’s sources, Servin Yakubov and a representative of the Turkish company Kemal Kurnaz are old acquaintances and have several joint business projects both in Ukraine and Azerbaijan.
After negotiations, the Ukrainian side was provided with documents confirming the ability of CY GRUP to carry out defense supplies. The contract was signed, and the money for the ammunition was transferred.
However, more than six months have passed, and bulletproof vests have not been sent to Ukraine.
On May 17, when all the actual delivery dates had passed, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine turned to the Turkish company with a demand to compensate for the funds paid.
“The Ministry of Defense signed an agreement for the purchase of body armor for a total of 16.6 million euros. These bulletproof vests have not yet been delivered to Ukraine. The company, which has given an obligation to supply these bulletproof vests for the needs of the Ministry of Defense, generally refuses to supply and fulfill the terms of the contract. Thus, this company has a receivable to the Ministry of Defense”, Anastasia Bondarenko comments.
Anastasia Bondarenko, analyst
According to the lawyer, these receivables must be repaid either in goods or in cash. Since the Turkish company does not physically have any goods that had to be delivered under the terms of the contract, it has a monetary obligation, so the company must return these funds. It is known that at this stage lawyers and lawyers of the Ministry of Defense have already filed a claim with the ICAC, and the case is currently under consideration.
But, according to open information, there is no money on FARMTR accounts, just as there are no goods in warehouses. That is, in fact, the Turks do not have property with which they could answer to the debtor.
“The Ministry of Defense has several “complicated” contracts that require a judicial investigation, where one of these unfortunate counterparties, Ukrainian officials have a grudge against them“, – said the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Kopytko.
Alexey Kopytko about FARMTR
FARMTR. What other companies and individuals appear in the scheme?
When the pressure for a refund began, FARMTR allegedly ordered some of the body armor from a subcontractor – a company from Bahrain, and even transferred the amount of 580 thousand dollars to the accounts of this contractor.
However, later it turned out that even the agreements between the Bahraini and Turkish companies were not fulfilled: FARMTR never signed the agreement and did not provide the Bahraini company with the amount of money necessary to start production. The company from Bahrain, in turn, transferred orders for production at its own risk, but due to the lack of documents and payment from FARMTR, the already manufactured bulletproof vests simply lie dead in the warehouses of the manufacturer in China.
According to the registries, the beneficiary of FARMTR is Halit Arabachi, a Turk. On May 23 this year, the Antalya court seized Arabachi and his companies, blocking movable and immovable property. Also, all representatives of the company who took part in the signing of this contract are suspects in the criminal proceedings opened by Turkish law enforcement officers.
Halit Arabachi, FARMTR
StopCor managed to obtain a Turkish bank statement on the movement of funds on the account of Arabachi companies. She demonstrates that after receiving funds under the contract from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, within two hours, he spent 12 tranches, distributing money exclusively between his own accounts.
Arabachi himself is trying with might and main to shield himself in order to take the position of the victim. The editors of StopCor received correspondence with a transcript of the interrogations of Arabachi by the Turkish prosecutor’s office and Ukrainian law enforcement officers in order to compare his testimony in this case.
And immediately numerous inconsistencies with FARMTR are striking.
During interrogation by Turkish prosecutors, Arabachi claims to be running an agricultural business. But he assures Ukrainian law enforcement officers that he works for the defense complex.
Moreover, from the text of the documents it becomes clear that Halit Arabachi is not at all versed in the details of the defense order. Thus, the contract provided for the supply of 30,000 bulletproof vests, while the Turkish businessman is talking about allegedly 70,000.
It is interesting to compare the testimony of Arabachi with the interrogation of his adviser, Nabi Kurun, who was also interrogated by Turkish law enforcement officers. Arabachi says the company bought 17,000 armor plates, while his advisor says 9,000.
As a result, according to experts, it is hardly possible to get a decision on this case in the near future. According to Anastasia Bondarenko, the trial may take more than one year, which means that the chances that these bulletproof vests will be delivered in the near future are almost zero.
But that’s not all: there is also a “Russian trace” in the case.
According to Artem Polikovsky, during the journalistic investigation of the editorial office, another interesting insider about the activities of Arabachi became known. It turned out that at the time of signing the contract with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the Turkish businessman continued and continues to cooperate with the Russian Federation.
In particular, Halit Arabachi is the beneficiary of CY Grup, which owns Alfalog International Company. It is an international company providing air and sea transportation between Turkey and Russia.
The company denies any connection with the Russian Federation
The company also provides road transportation on the route Turkey – Russia through a subcontractor.
It turns out that Halit signed contracts with Ukraine and at the same time delivers goods to the aggressor country through Alfalog. Evidence of this bank statement for the carriage. They are dated June, July, August and even September 2022. That is, precisely during the cynical attacks by Russian missiles on Ukrainian peaceful cities.
However, it is not the Turks that can be made guilty of this scheme, but … the Ministry of Defense.
“The most epic thing in this story is not even that the Turks deceived us, that we still have not received such necessary bulletproof vests, that almost 17 million euros are hanging in the air, but that Ukrainian law enforcement officers are looking for the perpetrators not in Turkey, but in the Ministry of Defense Ukraine. “It seems that they didn’t just “pierce” the counterparty’s reputation, but also entered into a criminal conspiracy with him“, – says Artem.
To prove these assumptions, the police and investigators somehow obtained the aforementioned testimony from Halit Arabachi.
But since it is simply impossible to attach corruption or embezzlement of funds to this controversial case, Ukrainian law enforcement officers accuse the Ministry of Defense and its representatives of embezzling the same $580,000 that FARMTR transferred to Bahrain.
“Now the Ministry of Defense is fighting off attacks by the investigative prosecutor’s office, that is, it is working on two fronts: external and internal”, the journalist sums up.
So, will Ukraine be able to return the lost UAH 600 million, and will the unfortunate Turkish supplier be held accountable? StopKor will continue to monitor this complicated case and will definitely reveal new details in the following materials.
Recall that the Strategic Investigation Department of the National Police suspects the leadership of Thanos Technology, a Kyiv business and a member of the Opposition Platform for Life, Mykola Petrenko, of misappropriation and laundering of funds allocated by the state for the purchase of military goods.
