Case description
On April 29, 2024, the HACC found Hennadii Politykin, former director of the Zaporizhzhia Electric Locomotive Repair Plant (ZELRP); his deputy Oleksandr Fenin, and Leonid Yermakov, head of a private firm; guilty of organizing the purchase of gear wheels at inflated prices.
According to the investigation, Yermakov, a representative of SK Smart LLC, conspired with ZELRP management to ensure that his company got awarded in the open tender for the purchase of 30 large gear wheels for ChS-4 electric trains. ZELRP Director Politykin was supposed to remove other bidders, and his deputy Fenin would have formalized the victory of the private firm.
In December 2014, after disclosing the bids, SK Smart LLC turned out to have the highest price at the tender, but the defendants entered false information into the bid evaluation protocol, thus allowing the company to get awarded. They had agreed with representatives of other companies before that to artificially inflate their price offers. Subsequently, a contract was signed for almost UAH 2.5 million. The state suffered UAH 789,000 in losses.
The defendants’ actions were qualified under Article 364(2) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Yermakov was sentenced to 5 years in prison and a fine of UAH 17,000; Politykin and Fenin were sentenced to 4 years in prison with a similar fine. Additionally, the convicted persons were banned from holding certain positions for 3 years.
