Kostyantyn Shpilovy - ex-deputy of the Odesa City Council, former employee of the Administration of the President of Ukraine, deputy head of the National Police Department of the Odesa region. Currently, he is the CEO and managing partner of a successful European agency Absolution, one of the activities of which is the identification and search of foreign assets obtained from corrupt, fraudulent and other criminal activities.
The very investigation initiated by Absolution into the luxurious life of Yevhen Borysov, the military commissar of the Odesa region, was the first stone that eventually led to a grandiose collapse, a global upheaval, and a reboot of the entire system of Ukrainian military commissions (TCC and SP). And in the case of Kostiantyn Shpilovoy, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of such stories.
In the first part of a long interview with the agency EliteExpert he shared the principles of his agency's work, told how the Odesa military commissar was plagued by greed and confidence in its own impunity, and suggested how the situation in Ukrainian TCCs and SPs would change after large-scale inspections and mass dismissals of their leaders.
- In Ukraine, the case of military commissar Borisov caused a serious outcry. The President of Ukraine drew attention to him. Before the topic was picked up by the central mass media, former People's Deputy Ihor Mosiychuk, as well as political figure Dmytro Korchynskyi and the anonymous Telegram channel Revizor, spoke about it several times, but it was unclear where the initiative came from, and most importantly, who was able to organize the investigation affairs at the civil level?
- The information about Borisov did not appear today, nor yesterday, nor even a year ago. There were legends about him even before that he was not just a soldier, but a soldier-businessman, because this man led a life that did not befit a military one. For example, as recently as 5 years ago, he was present at business negotiations with two golden Vertu (this pathetic "totem" gadget from the distant zeros is quite a revealing touch to his persona). He always drove luxury cars, even when he was the deputy of Piskun, who, you remember, was exposed for bribery by the Security Service of Ukraine...
Therefore, the appearance of his relatives in Spain and the purchase of real estate there is not a cause, but a consequence of his activities.
Borisov is a typical "bourgeois in the nobility". He did not even assume that information about his affairs could cause such a public outcry, he did not realize that such expenses and purchases are unnatural in wartime.
You know, the saying: "it's very sad when limited people have unlimited opportunities", this is about him.
- Why exactly did Borisov become this trigger for the entire system?
- He became a trigger for the entire Ukrainian society. And at the same time, the system was not trying to protect him personally, it was trying to protect itself, because everything was closed at the top, on the Operational Command "South".
- So, society has many questions about the history of Borisov's illness and his trips abroad "for treatment". It did not seem to you that in the Ministry of Defense, in particular in OK «South», were hiding the real state of affairs?
- I would very much like to know the results of the SBI's analysis of who and how the official investigation of Borisov was carried out as part of the criminal case. After all, according to his results, the spokesperson of OK "South" Nataliya Humenyuk declared that there were no violations on Borisov's part! What documents were studied, what was the basis of the investigation and on the basis of which the conclusion about his innocence was made? After all, the President had to intervene in the situation.
- Was it difficult to find Borisov's property?
- No, we have a lot of professional experience - and besides, Borisov himself helped us, because he didn't even hide it. He registered part of the property through a Spanish notary, so everything is reflected in real estate databases.
He did everything openly, disregarding all norms of morality, law and ethics, spitting on them. The soldier was absolutely sure of his impunity.
- According to NAZK, Borisov had "creditors" who sponsored his purchases - it was about the owners of the club "Ibiza". What do you know about it?
- He has really close ties with the owners of the "Ibiza" club - we have materials that they are his partners (NAZK proved the same). The owners of the club refer to the documents according to which they allegedly issued a loan of one million dollars to the military. And this after the latter declared to the whole country to the journalist of "Ukrainian Pravda" that he does not know who is in his family, what he bought and how he earns!
Question: how can businessmen lend an official a million dollars without collateral, and most importantly, how is the official going to repay the debt later, with a nominal salary of 30 hryvnias? After all, he was a military serviceman all his life, he never retired from military service.
In addition, in my opinion, the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine should have questions about Borisov. After all, he graduated from the Leningrad higher military political school of the Air Defense Forces during the USSR, in the last cohorts, and the distribution there was such that half of the graduates became employees of the Russian special services. It was political tricks, almost from the first course, that were recruited and cooperated with special services, and in particular, with counterintelligence. At that time, it was the KGB, and Borisov came in 1987-1988.
- But Borisov has a son - an active employee of the SBU, it is unlikely that he and his family were not repeatedly checked again...
- The investigation has already shown that his son covered for him, helped him hide first in the south of Odesa region, then in Kyiv, moved his main phone. But this is already a matter for the internal security department of the SBU and our counterintelligence.
- Could anyone else stand up for the military commander?
- In principle, it is impossible to engage in such activities without high patrons. Borisov went to all the TOPs' birthday parties, and it was considered a fortune to be friends with him, especially in wartime. Odesa was a "hub" for the distribution of indulgences from the draft - according to our calculations, more than 2022 thousand "white" tickets were issued since the beginning of 80.
- Do you think that only "white" tickets were the main source of income for military commissars?
- Not only. But this is one of the most disgusting types of income. For Borisov, a human life was valued at $6000 — it was this amount that started the price of issuing a "white ticket."
The consequences still have a lot of work to do — during the investigation into the legality of issuing "white tickets" very famous and loud names will start to surface. Behind every "white ticket" are officials, deputies, their relatives...
At the same time, a huge number of untrained, "unworthy" people were mobilized into the army, whose only fault was that they had no money.
Regarding this, a recent case in Shiryaevo, when a disabled person was mobilized, and he died the next night, is illustrative. However, I think that there are many more such people who went to serve instead of those who redeemed themselves.
Thousands of people had to be called according to the mobilization plan instead of those to whom Borisov sold "white" tickets. So you either pay or you go to fight.
Of course, military commissars made money not only on mobilization, the entire distribution of the budget, equipment and support went through the TCC and SP.
Borisov's well-known conflict with a serviceman in Odesa OVA, which he told in court - then he was shot. Can you imagine how a military officer had to be proven? And later this person died at the front, she was sent there to hide Borisov's affairs. This, by the way, to the question about the patrons - they do not cut the hen that lays the golden eggs.
- If you evaluate Borisov's activities, who do you think he is more of - a looter, a criminal or a traitor?
- In my opinion, he is both a criminal and a traitor. During the war, Borisov was abroad in Marbella, where the Russian special services have been active for a long time, and recruiting such a person is not worth anything to a professional personnel scout.
Do you understand what the most important information Borisov had? How many combat units are there in the country, where are they located, how many people are mobilized, what is the composition of the troops, what accounting specialties - after all, he is the bearer of state secrets!
At the same time, he keeps accounts abroad, in Austrian and Hungarian banks, which receive funds from various companies. It is not difficult for any professional employee of the special services to document all this and recruit someone like Borisov.
- After the recent dismissal of all former military commissars in Ukraine, should we expect that the situation will change?
- In my opinion, it is not necessary to change people, but the TCC system itself, so that there is no centralization of subordination, so that the authorized bodies are independent, transparent and monitor each other. So that it would not be possible to "solve the issue" simply by going to the military officer's office.
For example, now Borisov has been locked up in a pre-trial detention center in the case of the SBI, but there is still a NABU case against him, the results of which are still unknown.
And I think that very soon we will hear about new interesting facts of this case: who helped him and how he helped.
- What awaits Borisov next? After all, the court set a bail of 150 million hryvnias for him.
- He could easily be released from the pretrial detention center on bail. I am sure that Borisov has such money, but he needs it to be "white", clean, with a proven legal origin. And the one who takes the risk to deposit this money for him now will himself become the object of an investigation by the special services. Therefore, now the entire vertical has turned away from Borisov: he failed the system and it spat him out.
There is an opinion that the military veteran will be given the opportunity to quietly escape to Spain in his home, but now the investigation of the Spanish anti-corruption prosecutor's office has begun regarding Borisov's property, money laundering and legalization by him on the territory of the European Union - and this is a very serious article.
Unfortunately, financial monitoring, the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine and the tax inspectorate are not interested in his income as part of the criminal case. And they could check where Borisov's family got such money.
His mother and his wife have a company that earned about 800 hryvnias for three partners in a year - at the same time, she buys a house in Spain for 4 million euros! Only the maintenance of such a house costs from 50 to 80 thousand euros per year, including taxes.
Borisov himself talked about his mother-in-law, who also works at the TCC. At the time when the investigation was already underway, she took out a car for herself for 100 euros.
These people live in a completely different reality - this is a new caste of multimillionaires who got rich during the war. Look at the "military coup" that began after the Borisov case, and can you imagine how much unprocessed information is still in the DBR, NABU and counterintelligence, how much is still being developed by them? Materials and folders have been accumulated for a long time, a trigger was needed, since people have already crossed all the limits of what is allowed.
The Western press is already writing about Borisov. We approached it professionally, information was sent in waves so that the scandal remained in the news and was not interrupted by other news. Currently, Borisov has become a marker for other military commissars - this can be called the "Borisov syndrome".
This case will not be able to die down, and we will move on. God grant that the dismissal of officials and military commissars who defected will have a positive effect on the quality of the people called up and on the morale of those heroes who are on the front lines.
- You dealt with the issue of Borisov as part of the work of the International Detective Agency Absolution. How long ago did you create it and for what purpose?
- The idea was born a long time ago, when I left the civil service to join the police, now the agency is 7 years old. We mostly work with foreign banks, investment companies, we deal with forensics and compliance - this is about 90% of our clients, and only 10% are Ukrainian.
However, now we have begun to work more closely in Ukraine, because most Ukrainian officials are hiding their assets abroad: this includes the former vice-mayor of Odesa Mykhailo Kuchuk, and the ex-head of the FSMU Sennychenko, and a number of other top officials who are currently wanted. So that's what we're doing.
By the way, many law firms in the West work 10: of their time helping people for free. We spend this time helping Ukraine.
- Ihor Mosiychuk, Dmytro Korchynskyi, and Mykhailo Tkach were also involved in Borisov's case - did they work separately or together with you?
- We are grateful to everyone who participated. According to Borisov, there was information, we threw it into a joint chat for people who are engaged in professional anti-corruption activities and cover it. And so, by itself, a pool appeared that united strangers who had never worked together before. At the moment, our investigations are a return of debt to our homeland. Everyone has their own front. All the more so because I am sure: in Borisov's case, my colleagues from Absolution and everyone who participated saved the lives of thousands of people, and therefore, we are doing this for a reason.
Olena Ovchinnikova spoke
Photo from the personal archive of Kostyantyn Shpilovoy
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