The year 2023 was not only the second year since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation. For the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, this is another year of high-profile scandals and investigations. But while citizens have been indignant for more than a month about the banal “eggs of 17” as an example of corruption schemes in the MoD, a much louder, more confusing and frankly criminal scandal falls out of sight – about the waste of 16,656,300 euros on bulletproof vests that do not exist (or do they still exist?). The agreement concluded under a simplified scheme in March 2022 did not take place. Even more, over time it acquired a lot of confusing and frankly sinister circumstances: murders, disappearances of people, the “Russian trail” and even the participation of the fifth president of Ukraine – how do you think all this is connected with the “heroic” activities of the Ministry of Defense? Let’s try to figure it out!
First of all, if you quickly ask Google about this case of failure to fulfill the contract for such an important ammunition, you will get only a few independent publications in the media that can hardly be called “pro-government”, rather the opposite – those channels and media that actively glorify the government as if “mouth watering” typed. Compare, for example, with the number of publications and debunkings related to a similar embezzlement case, after which Deputy Minister of Defense Vyacheslav Shapovalov resigned. You will be surprised – because there is just a storm of thoughts and details! So, what is the reason for such silence? But what consequences can be announced today? Let’s get into the details!
A little backstory: the chaos at the start of a full-scale invasion and the flak jacket contract
Let’s refresh our memory a little about those difficult days, the first weeks after the start of the full-scale invasion. Body armor then became the cornerstone of defense, because there was not enough of them, there was nowhere to take them within the borders of the country: the economy and production had long been taken beyond the needs of the Ministry of Defense and simply could not cope with providing for the needs of the army. Therefore, the decision of the Ministry of Defense to purchase bulletproof vests from external suppliers became quite logical. Thanks to the simplified procurement scheme that was implemented for these tasks, procurement was then carried out without long tenders, bypassing the Prozorro system.
One such contract agreed by the Ministry of Defense in March 2022 was a contract with the Turkish company FARMTR TARIM HAYVANCILIK TICARET VE SANAYI LIMITED SIRKETI, which undertook to supply 30,000 armored personnel carriers for the needs of the Armed Forces. However, neither body armor nor money appeared on the balance sheet of the Ministry of Defense a year and a half later. The MoD approved the contract on the basis of allegedly existing documents confirming that FARMTR could fulfill its supply obligations. The agreement was concluded, the money was transferred to the company’s accounts – but, apparently, they decided that that was it, the ends were well hidden.
Servin Yakubov, ex-officer of the Ministry of Defense, was secretly interested in the conclusion of the agreement. He is also known as the owner of several business projects in Azerbaijan, Bahrain and Ukraine, which were opened jointly with the representative of the Turkish company, Kemal Kurnaz. Yakubov was well acquainted with the management of FARMTR and had connections with its beneficiary through Eko Avrasya, where, by the way, another guide works – Hykmet Eren. So, of course, they all had their own benefit from such a contract. But let’s not rush ahead.
One of the key people in this complicated international case was Dr. Kandash Gürol. At the same time as fulfilling his duties as a representative of Ukraine’s interests in Turkey, he bravely fought against a wide network of corruption.
Gürol’s fearless and dispassionate investigation led to the opening of criminal cases against Halit Arabachi and his group of companies. With each new turn of this sophisticated corruption labyrinth, Gurol showed an indomitable determination in the search for justice.
Dr. Gürol’s hard work made it possible to collect the evidence necessary to initiate the seizure of the assets of Arabachi and his companies.
At the same time, his decisive actions did not go unnoticed. Despite phone threats, Gurol remained steadfast, following his own drive for justice. But it was also logical: after all, Dr. Kandash became a stumbling block on the path of a whole group of fraudsters.
It was he who found evidence that the signature of Yusuf Kuron, the son of Arabachi’s consultant, had been forged.
It is thanks to his professionalism and stubbornness that there is hope that the stolen 16,656,300 euros will eventually return to the accounts of the Ministry of Defense.
In March 2022, the Ministry of Defense initiated the opening of arbitration with the FARMTR company, when it became impossible to hide the disrupted supply, because the fighting continues, and the equipment for the fighters actually did not exist, and does not have! The representatives of the counterparty then promised to close the supply within 5 days, but, as they say, promises are empty
When the matter has already moved to the legal level, and on the horizon there was a court case and the return of money based on the results of the investigation, it turned out that FARMTR does not have assets on the balance sheet to repay the receivables, and the main activity of the company is the supply of agricultural products in general. And all 16,656,300 euros from the company’s accounts were transferred to the private accounts of its owner in the form of 12 tranches (1, information from the StopCor publication). But at the same time, the owner of FARMTR, Halit Arabachi, testified that he contracted as a subcontractor a Bahraini company, which, in fact, was supposed to manufacture and supply body armor.
Yes, the Bahraini company does exist. Also, relying on the honest word of Arabachi, she fulfilled her obligations, produced bulletproof vests, but due to lack of payment, they remained dead cargo at the Chinese factory with which the company cooperated. Today, these bulletproof vests have already incurred a considerable penalty for storage, and FARMTR has not yet paid for their production and delivery.
But then it is even more impressive that in the presence of full information about the supply scheme, someone decided to “make a little money” also on other people’s assets and opened a criminal case against the participants of the negotiations – accusing them of being related to the Bahraini company and, as it were, embezzling $580,000 USA in addition.
The main actors of the phantasmagoria with vests: let’s find out in more detail who is who in this deal
In order to continue our story, it is necessary to introduce the main actors in the military aspect of this case.
First of all, we need to mention Klepas Boris Borisovych. He was responsible for receiving body armor and other military products and was directly involved in this matter in the military unit in Khmelnytskyi. It was his signature that usually completed the process of accepting ammunition, so his name was an important element in the context of this agreement.
As the head of the acceptance committee, Klepas was a key person in this story, because he was prepared to accept anything from Halit and CY Group, and even managed to accept goods from them under another contract, of very low quality, by the way: in damaged packaging, torn , without packaging and goods that do not meet the requirements.
The main responsible person for quality control was A.F. Fedina, another key personality of our narrative. This “professional” in her field worked tirelessly to ensure that each batch of products met the stated standards.
Next, it is important to note that the employees of DDZ were busy with issues of customs clearance of products, and all this was managed by the same B.B. Klepas. They played a role in the deal, because they ensured the slow process of moving low-quality goods across the border.
After the acceptance process, the products, as a rule, went to the institute for the study of protection problems in Kyiv. There, the plates from the supply were thoroughly tested. This was an important process for quality assurance.
All the conducted tests were then formalized in an act that had to be signed by the commission. Here Klepas B.B. comes into play again. It was he, as the head of the commission, who put the final signature on the documents. We all understand how it was done given the background.
Now it is worth making a small digression and introducing you to the equally main protagonists of this complicated story, this time — managers, in order to make an understanding of the following processes.
● Servin Yakubov is a former official of the Ministry of Defense who behind the scenes lobbied for the Turkish contract, and in fact turned out to be the ultimate beneficiary, as a person associated with FARMTR business interests (1). By the way, he also threatened the representative of the Ukrainian side, Dr. Kandash Gyrol, at the stage of the trial in the Turkish court.
● Halit Arabachi is a beneficiary of FARMTR, the main figure in the case, which was opened in Turkey at the initiative of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, as well as in the ICAC court at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine. At the same time, he made himself a victim in a criminal case opened in Ukraine against representatives of the Ministry of Defense. So, we have the defendant and the victim in one person.
● Dr. Kandash Gürol is a Turkish lawyer who represents the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in the Turkish court.
● Yusuf Kuryun – a translation student who never worked, his father was the CEO of the CY Grup group of companies and a consultant to Halit Arabachi. Yusuf Kuryun’s signature is on the contract with the Ministry of Defense instead of the actual signature of the company’s director.
● Nabi Kuryun is the CEO of Halita Arabachi Group of Companies and Yusuf Kuryun’s father.
● Doru Angelache is a customs broker in Romania recommended by the Ministry of Defense as the person responsible for cargo transit.
● Valery Frunze – military attaché of the Ministry of Defense, responsible for cargo acceptance and documentation.
● Bohdan Khmelnytskyi is the director of the procurement department of the Ministry of Defense, who signed the contract and gained dubious fame in connection with a series of searches on him in a case related to the purchase of bulletproof vests and ammunition.
● Eren Hikmet – chairman of the board of the Eurasian Association of Economic Relations “EkoAvrasya”, who lobbied for the signing of the contract.
● Volodymyr Groysman – the 16th Prime Minister of Ukraine, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in 2014-2016, who introduced the odious Servin Yakubov to Ukroboronprom and the Ministry of Defense.
● Mykhailo Koval – former First Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council, former Acting Minister of Defense.
● Stepan Poltorak – former Minister of Defense and part-time responsible for President Poroshenko for cashback contracts of the Armed Forces. It was the people of Poltorak who wrote the terms of the tenders, in particular the rules of procurement during martial law, which were used by the participants of the scheme with the lobbyist Servin Yakubov.
● Denys Malai – an employee of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, who was authorized to sign contracts on behalf of the Ministry of Defense and was engaged in accepting goods purchased by the Ministry.
● Nikita Tsiba – the investigator who conducted the investigation of the case opened by the Ukrainian side about the alleged embezzlement of $580,000, in which Halit Arabachi is… the victim!
All listed members were loaded as cartridges in a clip. And the first 2 have already fired – 2 deaths, united by one scheme.
How efforts to recover the money turned into a series of high-profile deaths
So, as of May 2022, we have a contract for the supply of 30,000 body armor, which is the guarantee of 30,000 saved lives of our military! According to the contract, the Ministry of Defense transferred 16+ million euros to the accounts of the Turkish contractor company. The beneficiary of the company, Halit Arabachi, transferred this money to his own accounts in 12 events. At the same time, when the deadlines for fulfilling the obligations under the contract have passed, he negotiates with the Bahraini company for the supply.
He transfers $580,000 to this company, which is only 10% of the required amount for manufacturing and delivery. The company orders the production of bulletproof vests in China at its own expense, but does not receive the remaining money, and there are no documents from FARMTR for the export of goods from China either – that is why the bulletproof vests are still covered with dust in warehouses and accumulate debt for storage.
On the basis of the collected facts, the Ukrainian side filed a lawsuit in Turkey, where the interests of the Ministry of Defense were represented by lawyer Dr. Kandash Gyurol. Halit Arabachi was interrogated by Turkish investigators for the trial. But at the same time, a criminal case was suddenly initiated in Ukraine against representatives of the Ministry of Defense.
Later, senior investigator Nikita Tsiba joined the case, who interrogated our Turkish businessman as a victim. And here’s what’s interesting: truly Turkish cunning was revealed already at the interrogation stage. Just follow the train of thought:
● At the interrogation in Turkey during the summons to the local prosecutor’s office, Mr. Arabachi said that he had signed the contract, although officially his company is engaged in agricultural production, not “defense”, and he did not put his signature at the same time.
● Investigator Tsyba allegedly interrogated Arabachi at the Ukrainian representative office for 1 day, although the interrogation protocol mentions that on the eve of the official interrogation, he met with Arabachi, as an injured party, in person. Please note that Mr. Arabachi was not questioned by Tsib about the deal for 16 million, but about another case — about the alleged embezzlement of $580,000 by representatives of the Ministry of Defense (2).
Upon questioning, Arabachi made a statement that he had indeed promised the supply and had ordered the bulletproof vests. Moreover, he also offered the Ministry of Defense to supply products, clothing, and aircraft. Although at the same time his consultant is even confused about the number of ordered plates for body armor — Khalit declares an order for 30,000, and his consultant Nabi Kuron – for 70,000 (1).
At the same time, Kuron’s son Yusuf, whose signature appears in the text of the agreement, as it turned out during the interrogation, has nothing to do with the FARMTR company at all. He is an ordinary student and does not work anywhere, he studies languages, so he helped his father, a consultant Arabachi, to translate the agreement, and his signature is a forgery that was made without his knowledge. And Arabachi himself makes a statement that this is some kind of misunderstanding.
As a result, at the end of 2022, the MoD and Halit Arabachi reached a mediation agreement: the grieving businessman undertakes to return the money, and the Ministry of Defense withdraws the lawsuit and undertakes not to initiate new cases against FARMTR. Why did the Ministry of Defense decide not to sue the supplier, which clearly did not fulfill its obligations?
After all, it is quite obvious that in this case in the Turkish court, the Ministry of Defense would have won and could forcibly receive from the company not only the “embezzled” money, but also compensation (in the conditions of war, it would not be too much for the budget)!
Instead, some not very transparent “mediation agreement” appears without guarantees and legal regulation. There is a suspicion that such a decision was imposed on our Ministry of Defense from above – perhaps they even invented some decent reason such as: there is no need to waste time in court, let Khalit Arabachi pay the money in installments. And what do you think it was for? Is it not in order to get Arabachi out of the way and gradually shut down the matter?
In the winter of 2022-2023, Halit Arabachi even transferred the first payment to the MO account. But then there was an earthquake in Turkey, and the businessman stopped the payments, although he verbally promised to continue.
Since then, not a single tranche from FARMTR has been received in the accounts of the Ministry of Defense. Moreover, as Arabachi’s bank statements showed, he simply did not have the money to make these payments.
And on July 5, 2023, the press published the news that Halit Arabachi was found dead in his home. The official cause of death has not yet been announced, although the media is spreading information about the businessman’s suicide.
It is worth recalling that Khalit had an incredible amount of debt. But, as they say, there is no body – there is no case… Perhaps this is what the culprit himself or his henchmen thought.
However, there is a lot of paranormal in the case of Arabachi: how did an agricultural farmer from Turkey manage to become a supplier of armored vehicles to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, who signed the contract, if Khalit himself is not signed in it, and where did the money go from the accounts of Mr. Arabachi himself? These questions remain unanswered.
If you look at the person of Arabachi, there are also many secrets. There is a 5-year-old video online of an entrepreneur having a conversation about religion and devilish possession with someone. And according to the content of the video, it becomes obvious that this is some kind of exorcism session, where Khalit himself is called the devil (shaitan).
Further, in the video, the businessman looks more like a client of a mental hospital – he is obviously in a state of insanity, he is shaking, and his speech is similar to schizophrenic delirium. You just assess whether such a person could adequately conduct business and deal with large supplies of ammunition and weapons (after all, this is how the Ministry of Defense presented him at the stage of signing the contract)?
Staging or suicide: what happened behind the scenes of the “mediation agreement”?
If you think that Khalit Arabachi’s suicide was the only one in this series of paranormal phenomena, you are deeply mistaken. This event was preceded by several other interrelated situations.
- Approximately two weeks before the death of Arabachi, an employee of the Ministry of Defense – Denys Malai – disappears. Malay, if we take as a basis the data from the open database YouControl (Google’s cache a few weeks before the disappearance), had the right to sign contracts for the supply of military equipment (3). As soon as the official “disappeared from the radar”, this information was quickly deleted from the database.
- In the immediate aftermath of Malaya’s disappearance, senior investigator Nikita Tsiba is removed from the $580,000 embezzlement case. At the same time, it remains a mystery why he is only looking for this amount, and he bypasses the related (or pulled by the ears) case about bulletproof vests, and it would seem that the larger amount of 16.6 million euros does not interest him at all, as if it had been bewitched by the shaytan !
- Pursuant to the terms of the mediation agreement, all cases and claims against Halit Arabachi and FARMTR are closed. But the theft case, in which he is the victim, remains open.
That is, there are bulletproof vests, but it is impossible to export them now due to the death of the FARMTR beneficiary and the lack of payment to the supplier, as well as the lack of documents for export. It is not known where the money that Arabachi took.
FARMTR cases are closed and cannot be reopened due to the defendant’s death, unless Arabachi’s relatives inherit all of his “assets” including liabilities. The investigator recused himself from the proceedings in a very timely manner, and the Ministry of Defense employee responsible for receiving goods under the contract went missing (by the way, there are rumors that he committed suicide in a very timely manner).
Who benefits from this situation: does it take root in politics?
The number of suicides in this case is not accidental. Both Arabachi and Malay are only “pawns” in this grand scheme. You surely understand that it will not work to justify all these “punctures” regarding this contract with the usual lack of control on the part of the Ministry of Defense. The signatures of unknown persons on both sides, the uncertain status of the supplier company — all of this would definitely not pass inspection and approval even under the conditions of a simplified supply scheme. So, if they simply turned a blind eye to the conclusion of this, obviously, “fake” contract, it’s not for nothing.
Even more, there is a suspicion that both Arabachi and Malay are quite alive, and their such “timely” deaths are nothing more than staged.
But who is behind it? Let’s start with the fact that such schemes are always developed in the upper echelons of power. For example, if we take into account that the opening of criminal cases on the alleged embezzlement of $580,000 in the Ministry of Defense was personally initiated by Denys Monastyrskyi from the top, it becomes clear that this is also a link in a long chain that eventually leads to bulletproof vests, Halita Arabachi and more theft.
It is also significant that there were rumors on the sidelines that the theft project as a whole was designed to take a total of more than $1 billion from the accounts of the Department of Defense. By the way, Halit Arabachi hinted at this indirectly during his interrogation, when he said that he was ready to supply the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine with products for the army, weapons, and even airplanes with helicopters. What an agrarian, huh? It is likely that if the first contract was successfully written off without too much fuss, the next ones would follow.
At the same time, it should not be forgotten that even before the conclusion of the contract by the Ministry of Defense, the participants in the negotiations with Halit convincingly did not recommend cooperation with FARMTR due to a number of reasons, including the incompetence of the potential supplier at that time, as well as the lack of confirmation of the presence of the goods in the warehouse. And it is this small group of people who have not been afraid to go against the huge embezzlement mechanism and object to the supply of food or helicopters worth more than 450 million dollars by Halit and his companies.
Now it becomes quite clear that Khalit did not even plan to supply any planes and helicopters or food, he just wanted to get the money as quickly as possible and share it with his criminal group.
Conspiracy theory or a complex scheme: is there a connection between the “case of bulletproof vests” and the death of the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs?
Denys Monastyrskyi and his team were involved in the scheme as direct participants in the scheme for opening and closing criminal cases. But here it is very inappropriate that in January 2023, the Minister of Internal Affairs and his deputies die in a plane crash. It is quite likely that this event is a link in the same chain, because the minister could not agree to the terms of the agreement or demand too large a share for himself. Then it was simply eliminated, because the probability of a helicopter accident in the rear, not under fire, not from a Russian missile, is very small.
And, by the way, here comes another “interesting personality” – Yehor Bodrov, Monastyrskyi’s advisor. This figure has previously come to light in a corruption scandal, when People’s Deputy Valery Sterniychuk published audio recordings in which Bodrov cheerfully generated ideas on how to reverse the Ukreximbank loan scheme, which was successfully implemented and led to another scandal. At the same time, Bodrov himself in these audio recordings admits his connections with the judges of local and appeal courts, whom he “fed”, as well as connections with insiders of the state bank.
So, this figure under Denys Monastyrskyi developed an activity comparable to the activity of Andriy Yermak under President Zelenskyi — all decisions went through him.
That is, one of the “generators” and curators of the whole scheme could be Monastyrskyi’s advisor – Bodrov. But he was hardly the ultimate beneficiary of the whole structure. Such sums are usually assigned to the bigger “sharks”, and the participants in the lower ranks receive crumbs from their table. Among Bodrov’s other “important contacts” was the odious ex-deputy head of the DSU of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Hryhoriy Mamka, who was involved in particularly serious crimes in the field of economy and official activities, or simply put, corruption. By the way, senior investigator Nikita Tsyba worked fruitfully for many years under Mamka’s protectorate – for which he even received the “honorary” title of Mamka’s “chain dog” in the press. In tandem, these figures turned around many cases with a profitable result for themselves.
And from Mamka, links lead directly to another oligarch and ex-president Petro Poroshenko. He, too, was already the object of an investigation into corruption schemes in the defense sector. Therefore, it should not be surprising if Petro Oleksiyovych himself turns out to be the final link. He may also be the same “pointing finger” that initiated the entire scheme that led to the deaths (or their staging) of the businessman Arabachi, the employee of MO Malay and the death of Monastyrskyi.
After all, if all the stages of the scheme were carried out accurately, the profit of the customers could amount to 1 billion US dollars, which is quite a lot even by the standards of oligarchs like Poroshenko.
But a little about the “Russian trail”
The “Russian footprint” in this whole story should not be discounted. We will cite only a few facts in favor of the fact that the whole scheme with embezzlement and criminal cases plays into the hands of the Russian side.
● Halit Arabachi himself, in addition to managing the FARMTR firm, was also the final beneficiary of the CY Grup company, involved with the help of Alfalog International Company in sea and air transportation, including from Russia.
● Servin Yakubov, who was involved in the promotion of the deal for 30,000 body armor, was not only at one time caught in the bribery he collected from traders of the “7 kilometer” market in Odesa (4), but also related to business in Bahrain, Azerbaijan and according to some information – in Russia.
● Investigator Nikita Tsyba was also connected with the Russian Federation at one time. In addition to the fact that he was considered one of Hryhoriy Mamka’s “chain dogs” from the mid-2000s, he fundamentally pushed through the court the decision to write his name in the Russian transcription.
● Mamka himself is associated with the banned political force OPZZH, whose activities have a pro-Russian basis.
● Monastyrskyi’s adviser, Bodrov, who is involved in the scheme, is connected both to Hryhoriy Mamka and to another odious character, Estonian developer Gilar Teder, who runs a business in Crimea. Through special sources, we even managed to see Mr. Bodrov’s Russian passport.
Together, almost every link in the chain has its own connections with Russia. And, of course, this whole scheme is doubly beneficial to any businessman and official from Russia: the Armed Forces of Ukraine are weakened due to a supply disruption during the active phase of the war, when every bulletproof vest is worth its weight in gold, and at the same time, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine is discredited in the eyes of its own same citizens.
Conclusion: what to expect from the investigation, and is there a chance to return the money to the budget of the Ministry of Defense?
Currently, purely within the framework of the law, the return of 16.6 million dollars spent on bulletproof vests is almost unrealistic. The only exception is if the heirs of Halit Arabachi enter into succession rights and fulfill his obligations under the mediation agreement. But if you start from the fact that the businessman’s accounts are completely zero, this is actually from the realm of fiction. And due to the fact that all criminal cases in Ukraine and Turkey were closed in advance under the terms of the same mediation agreement, it is simply impossible to officially request information about to whom and where the late Arabachi transferred the 16.6 million received.
Therefore, volunteers will continue to collect armor for our soldiers, as long as unprincipled corrupt officials at all levels of government continue to rob the country’s budget. And today it consists almost entirely of international infusions and assistance from partner countries. And as long as such schemes are not revealed and not covered in the press, until the pests do not despise murders and stagings, forgeries and threats, there are simply no special prospects in breaking the situation.
And even if the Minister of Defense successfully concludes contracts for receiving aid, thanks to the presence of such insatiable personnel in power, all this will not work for our victory at all, but to replenish the wallets of individual persons.
2. https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2022/08/30/7365302/
3. https://youcontrol.com.ua/ru/catalog/company_details/00034022/
