Today, the High Anti-Corruption Court held the third hearing on selecting a new interim measure for former Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Andrii Smyrnov. The prosecutor asked the court to place the defendant, accused in three corruption-related fraud cases, into custody.
All this because Smyrnov received new suspicions of laundering UAH 6.5 million by building a house on the Black Sea coast with the funds. Moreover, he allegedly didn’t object to a $100,000 bribe from Odesa developer Ihor Chernyshev, who carried out the construction, in exchange for canceling unfavourable tender results.
The NABU and SAPO believe that Smyrnov possessed unjustified cash assets, including UAH 6.5 million, which he chose to “legalize” by financing the construction of over 300 square meters of residential property. To do so, he allegedly enlisted the help of Ihor Chernyshev, owner of the Chernyshev Group, who controls part of the Odesa coastline and is actively developing it. The newly built residence—reportedly used by the high-ranking official—was initially registered to a separate company. However, after he was served with a notice of suspicion for illicit enrichment in May 2024, the property was quietly re-registered to a trustee named Milman.
This wasn’t the only revelation uncovered by the investigation. It appears that in January 2022, the former Deputy Head of the Presidential Office likely accepted a $100,000 bribe offer from the developer. This allegation surfaced through a rather revealing exchange of messages between Smyrnov and Chernyshev, which was read aloud during the HACC hearing:
(Translated from Russian)
Ch: “Good day. If I’m outta line, just ignore, I’ll erase it later. Thing is, I’ve got a situation in Odesa region—local officials ain’t holding up their end. I need a hand sealing a deal. I’m down to return the favor—talking a $100K coast setup (ed.: real estate funded by Smyrnov). I can break it down if you’re interested.
S: Go ahead
Ch: It’s about Artsyz. Me and the mayor spent a year planning a stadium, put in cash and time. We kicked off big construction, but then the regional MCD (ed.: Major Construction Department) stepped in and forced us to hand over procuring powers. The original plan was—I run the tender. Everybody knows I move the budget flows in this area. Only two bids came in. MCD told me to kill the tender and restart. Said they’d help us clean up the docs. But once it was reloaded, some mystery company popped up under new terms. MCD ghosted us. Out of nowhere, they hand the win to that firm. We’ve still got time to appeal, and their docs are shaky. But when a procuring entity’s set on pushing their crew, it’s windmill warfare. I’ve fought these battles. We play by the jungle code. I’ll send you the tender link now.
S: File with the AMCU. Someone will reach out soon.
The correspondence also revealed that Smyrnov monitored the status of the complaint and assured Chernyshev that everything would be resolved. On January 30, 2022, the AMCU canceled the tender results."
Investigators found two message templates on the phone of Chernyshev’s son, who serves as the commercial director of his father’s companies: (Translated from Russian) “Just writing this down so I don’t forget—nobody’s screwing anybody. We’ll pay it back. The thing is, the guy who had our back, Andrii Smyrnov, got canned. He was in on it with the head of the MCD, who’s also out. So now, we’ve got no one left we had deals with. If things don’t get back on track, we’ll have to grease the wheels at the finance department—Zinchenko’s our next move.” and “Here’s the deal. A. Smyrnov was the one covering for us and making things happen. Now he’s been fired and hit with a criminal case (see the news link). He used to work with the MCD head and hooked us up with him too, but that guy’s been sacked as well. Bottom line, we’ve got no one left on the inside.”
Smyrnov’s defense team argues that he does not qualify as a public official, as the position of Deputy Head of the Presidential Office does not carry formal authority. Therefore, they claim, he cannot be charged under Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (Acceptance of an offer, promise, or receipt of an unlawful benefit by an official). The suspect and his lawyers also deny all other allegations.
No interim measure has been imposed on Smyrnov so far. The hearing was postponed to May 5. It remains to be seen whether the fourth attempt to consider the motion will be more successful.
