Andrey Puzichuk
Will a bankrupt person complete the arcade?
Completion of the Arkada projects could become the largest corruption case in the construction industry in recent years. 11 investors were defrauded, and 13 billion hryvnias were contributed. Half of this amount is needed to complete the projects. Published on the website Business Censor.
How the construction will be financed is still unclear (the Federal State Income Tax Fund announced it had transferred information about the construction financing funds to a certain LLC, Financial Company Garant Capital), but there is already talk of state financing and state guarantees for loans. Even less optimism is being expressed by some signatories of the memorandum on the completion of the construction. For example, Azur Group. This company is part of the Fundament Insurance Group, which is associated with the Puzichuk family. One of the family's representatives Andrey Puzichuk He is a people's deputy from Batkivshchyna and heads the Temporary Investigative Committee for Combating Corruption in the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate.
It's worth noting that Arkada developed a number of projects jointly with Fundament and sold apartments in them. Projects built by Fundament, such as the La-La-Land residential complex, are still listed on Arkada's website. However, Palivoda, the head of Arkada, has been charged, and Fundament's owners, instead of being questioned, are receiving contracts to complete the construction.
But that's not the point. Or rather, it's not the only one. It's unclear how Fundament can complete the Arkada projects if the developer has long failed to fulfill its obligations to its own investors. And Fundament's production complex, DBK-3, which supplies Fundament with components and reinforced concrete structures, is in bankruptcy.
The heirs of Wojciechowski
Fundament has only five projects under its belt, and the company has missed all of them by years. Investors in already completed buildings are experiencing significant problems with utility connections because technical specifications were not met. The company's office is regularly picketed by investors. Online construction forums are overflowing with messages from Fundament clients, outraged by the developer's actions, or rather, the lack of action.
Late last year, Fundament investors who purchased apartments in the Welcome Home residential complex on Revutskoho Street blocked traffic in Kharkivskyi District. The residential complex entered the winter without hot water, heat, or power (generators were installed, providing electricity for four hours a day). The elevators in the 27-story building were constantly intermittent, there were no street cleaners, garbage was collected only every three days, and Fundament's management company ignored their requests until people began blocking the streets.
The situation at Welcome Home on Revutskogo Street is typical for most of Fundament's projects. Investors have to fight to get what they've paid for and what's stipulated in the investment agreement. It doesn't always work out. For example, the Privetlivy Kvartal project has been completely shelved. La-La-Land, which Fundament launched with Arkada back in 2017, has shrunk from 40 buildings to two, and the company still hasn't finished even those. The delivery of buildings at Welcome Home on Stetsenko Street is more than two years late.
The foundation poses a danger not only to its own investors but also to the city. This company was the developer of the controversial "Bergen" residential complex in the Goloseevsky Forest, attempted to develop land on the Dnieper River's Nikolskaya Slobodka River, and built the "Kamerton" residential complex on the bed of the underground Skomorokh River on Rechnaya Street (near Dmitrievskaya Street). This construction has caused cracks in the façade of the neighboring building and the asphalt in front of it. Residents of the building are suing the company, challenging the legality of the construction.
Deputies skip the line
The only explanation for the troubled developer being entrusted with completing the Arkada project is the fact that the company is closely associated with Andriy Puziychuk, a member of parliament from Batkivshchyna and head of the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate's (GASI) anti-corruption investigation committee. Before being elected to the Verkhovna Rada, he served as the company's deputy director. The company is controlled by the MP's family—his father, Viktor Puziychuk, and his brother, Vitaliy.
Godchildren of Nepop and Golitsa
Fundament gained notoriety in the 2000s as the company to which Golitsa and Nepop (former deputy heads of the Kyiv City State Administration) awarded municipal contracts from the Zhitlobudinvest public utility. According to Delovaya Stolitsa, the MP's father, Viktor Puziychuk, was a junior partner in the two "veterans" of Kyiv's budget embezzlement. According to Nashi Groshi, between 2008 and 2010 alone, Puziychuk Sr.'s companies concluded several construction contracts with the municipal enterprise worth UAH 1,018 billion.
Fundament existed, received capital for its own projects, and made its owners millionaires solely through public funds. This is a clear fact for the market. Just last year, for example, the company received an 800 million UAH contract from Zhitloinvestbud-UKB for the second phase of the Kyiv Zoo reconstruction. However, the company, which specializes in economy-class panel buildings, has no experience with such projects.
It appears that Fundament now wants to improve its shaky position and earn new billions by contracting for the completion of Arkada facilities, which will again be financed from the budget.
A deputy in a million-dollar suit to investors: There's no money, but hang in there!
On forums dedicated to Fundament, investors are openly stating that the company has no money to build facilities. Friends, that's not entirely true. The company may not have the funds, but Andriy Puziychuk, judging by the MP's asset declaration, is doing well. He recently returned from a tourist trip abroad for 146 UAH and purchased 7100 Easter cakes for 241 UAH for a PR giveaway to Batkivshchyna voters. The MP's assets include a 438-square-meter apartment, 5 hectares of land in Vyshenky near Kyiv, a collection of Swiss watches, jewelry, and fur coats belonging to his wife (Rolex, Hermes, Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier—25 items in total), and Puziychuk's own gun collection. He also owns a "processed hunting trophy from Namibia" worth 565 UAH.
But what's a trophy? Just one "item of clothing" belonging to MP Puziychuk costs, mind you, 987 hryvnias. Puziychuk doesn't specify whether it's a suit or a down jacket, but the total value of his declared clothing exceeds 1,3 million hryvnias. The MP owns a fleet of three premium SUVs—a Lexus, a Toyota, and a Range Rover—whose price he doesn't disclose (by conservative estimates, it's worth over 5,5 million hryvnias). And the MP shouldn't deny his corrupt ties to his beloved Fundament: his entire luxury fleet is registered to the company Fundament Auto. According to his declaration, Puziychuk is the beneficiary of this company, and his wife works there. Last year, she lent her husband, a member of parliament, 17 million hryvnias, while his father lent him 4,3 million hryvnias. At the same time, Puzichuk himself keeps 20 million UAH in cash.
Only another troubled developer can complete the construction of a problematic developer's projects.
It's astonishing that a developer with such a background and beneficiaries is becoming one of the contractors for the completion of the Arkada projects. How can a project be entrusted to a half-dead company whose director acts like Voitsekhovsky and whose investors are blocking streets in Kyiv due to the developer's failure to fulfill its obligations? Does someone want to create an "Arkada 2" and sow panic among investors in other companies, triggering a collapse in the primary housing market and a rash of new bankruptcies?
Victor Makarovsky
FILE: Vyacheslav Nepop: A "flayer" from Kyiv's construction mafia. Part 1
Mikhail Golitsa. The Story of a "Black Realtor" from Kyiv. Part 1
Andrey Puzichuk: About the Kyiv family clan of construction swindlers. Part 1
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