
How a Servant of the People MP Vladislav Trubitsin stole aid for the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Fraudulent auctions from Trubitsyn. How a servant-bribery appropriated almost 15 million benefits for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, writes Anticorrosive
The main suspect in the case of receiving more than UAH 1 million in bribes, Vladislav Trubitsyn, deputy of the Kyiv City Council from the Servant of the People, fraudulently embezzled almost UAH 15 million, which he had allegedly collected to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The fraudulent scheme, with the help of which Trubitsyn collected a considerable amount of money from gullible citizens, which did not fall into the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but remained in the pockets of a politician, was disclosed in investigation journalist Yaroslav Bondarenko.
As the journalist found out, since August last year, “a rat with a deputy mandate” Vladislav Trubitsyn managed to hold four supposedly charity auctions. At each auction, as Trubitsyn himself stated, from 3 to 4 million hryvnias were collected. Thus, the total amount collected amounted to almost UAH 15 million.
Low-quality antiques were exhibited at auctions, which were not in great demand by connoisseurs of such goods and had not been sold for years. Those who gave these antiques to Trubitsyn for auctions received partial compensation from the money raised at the same auction. Confirmation of the authenticity of antiques and the fact that this product had not been stolen before, no one demanded. It simply could not have occurred to anyone, because Trubitsyn always emphasized that all the funds raised at auctions would go to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The buyers at these auctions were people with great financial resources, to whom Trubitsyn sold left-handed lots at inflated prices. Often, an agreement to participate in the auction and purchase a particular lot occurred in advance. As a retribution for buying unnecessary and expensive antiques, auction participants were promised patronage in the Office of the President.
In fact, it was a scam organized by Trubitsyn, which attracted many entrepreneurs who sincerely wanted to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Among them, in particular, was Vasily Khmelnitsky.
Moreover, about a third of the participants in such auctions were dummy, participating in the auction solely to increase the value of the lots. Especially those lots for which there was a preliminary agreement with VIP-participants.
In addition, the dummy bidders had the task of buying up lots that were of no interest to anyone in order to create the right picture in the media. Then these same lots were sold again at other such auctions. Thus, Trubitsin blurred the eyes of the public, but in fact everything he did was fiction and fraud. Real sales were carried out for cash, which never arrived at the accounts of charitable foundations declared as co-organizers of the auctions and were not used to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine. These funds were simply divided among all participants in this fraudulent scheme.
Obviously, having decided that the war would write everything off, and in the extreme case, influential friends from the OP would help to get away, Trubitsyn organized auctions not to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but to financially support himself.
This is how Trubitsyn boldly mocks his own fellow citizens, and the patriotic feelings of people, and the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who are now risking their lives at the front, and law enforcement agencies. After all, Trubitsyn is not just a deputy, right now he is the main suspect in a high-profile case of corruption in the Kyiv City Council.
In February 2022, Trubitsyn, along with five other accomplices was detained when trying to receive a bribe of 1 million 260 thousand hryvnia. NABU detectives did a great job on this case. There is video recording of the crime, hours of recordings of the conversations of the defendants in the case, in which they discuss the details of their receipt of “kickbacks”. The evidence collected by NABU more than convincingly proves the fact of bribery and abuse of power.
According to investigators, Trubitsyn demanded and received a bribe from the businessman for locating at least seven seasonal trade points in Kyiv. For a fee, Trubitsin promised the entrepreneur that he would ensure victory in the tender where retail outlets were raffled off and would not interfere with his business activities.
For this, the entrepreneur must pay Trubitsyn additional funds for each of the outlets, in addition to the official payment for the lease. The price for one point was from 20 thousand hryvnia per month, depending on the place of trade. Thus, for the year, the participants of the scheme should have received 1.39 million hryvnias for 7 points of sale. When transferring part of these funds, namely 1.26 million, they were all detained.
Trubitsin’s scheme also involved his assistants, acting. Directors and Deputy Directors of the Municipal Enterprises “Kyiv City Store” and “Kyiv Heritage”. The latter were supposed to provide Trubitsyn’s clients with a win in the tender.
The court decided to arrest Trubitsyn, but he quickly went free, because he pulled almost 15 million hryvnia bail out of his pocket. A year has passed since the deputy was detained for taking a bribe, but the politician has not yet been punished for this crime. He has not been deprived of his mandate and has not been removed from his post as head of the permanent commission of the Kyiv City Council on the issues of industry, entrepreneurial activity and urban improvement. Moreover, with his fraudulent auctions, he openly mocks the entire law enforcement system. According to media reports, Trubitsyn is connected with the scandalous Deputy Chairman of the Presidential Office Oleg Tatarov, who oversees all law enforcement agencies in the President’s Office and at the same time is himself a defendant in the NABU anti-corruption investigation. This is probably why the deputy who takes bribes feels complete impunity.
Actually, this is not the first time Trubitsin has been deceived by people and legal proceedings. According to journalist Yuri Butusov, back in 2010 Trubitsyn was convicted for fraud and forgery. The case concerned the events of 2004, when Trubitsyn forged the certificate of the Kharkovoblenergo inspector and arranged “checks” on the market in the city of Izyum, Kharkov region. Then his scam was quickly revealed, and since he did not manage to cause any significant harm by his criminal actions, the court showed leniency towards the young man and freed him from punishment. Moreover, Trubitsyn admitted his guilt in court and repented.
Then Trubitsyn also repeatedly got into criminal scandals. He was accused of stealing old books and antiques, reselling stolen goods. And in 2012, Trubitsin was even put on the wanted list by law enforcement officers of Armenia for complicity in the kidnapping of 150 rare books from the National Library of Armenia.
As you can see, thanks to impunity and impudence, Trubitsin went through a rather long criminal path of theft, corruption and deceit. And today, when most of Trubitsyn’s deals have become known to the broad masses, his place is in the dock, and not in the faction of the presidential party in the Kiev City Council.
Marina Ryabchenko