Why Boris Filatov's deputy ended up in the dock

Criminal cases linked to the possible misappropriation of budget funds under the leadership of Ksenia Sushko, who heads the Department of Humanitarian Policy, have not yielded significant results. 

Almost all investigations concerning Sushko have concluded without consequences, and she continues to manage the city budget. However, there are two exceptions where cases did reach the court.

The first case, No. 42023040000000215, was opened on 29 March 2023. Ksenia Sushko has been charged with official forgery and misappropriation of budget funds. According to investigation materials, an agreement was reached between Sushko and Alexander Tsyptsiura, the director of the private company "Dniprohorstroy", to misappropriate a significant sum of funds from the Dnipro City Council. On 11 February 2022, 10 days before she left for Dubai with her family, Sushko signed a contract for the major repair of a school on Smolenskaya Street in Dnipro for a sum exceeding 27 million hryvnia.

During the investigation, it emerged that the director of "Dniprohorstroy" had inflated the prices of building materials by two times, including for steel I-beams, which cost 61,400 hryvnia per tonne, although the market price was significantly lower at 30,000. Ksenia Sushko signed the acts of completed work, leading to the unjustified transfer of almost one million hryvnia from the city budget.

This million is only a part of the total sum that could have been misappropriated, but, at least, the law enforcement agencies were able to hold Sushko accountable for it. On 11 September 2024, the charges were transferred to the Industrial Court of the city of Dnipro. The first hearing took place on 7 November, but the court's decision has not yet been published.

The second case, which also reached the court, is No. 12023041650000909, opened on 6 February 2023. According to the materials of this case, as early as 2018, Ksenia Sushko concluded contracts with the limited liability company "Art-Prom" for the supply of school furniture for a total sum exceeding three million hryvnia for various districts of Dnipro. However, the supplied furniture did not meet the standards, resulting in the embezzlement of budget funds. It turned out that Sushko and her deputy, Victoria Rog, altered the terms of the contracts, which allowed funds to be transferred to the supplier's accounts. The case was transferred to the Babushkinsky District Court of Dnipro, and the first hearing took place on 27 September 2024.

In her position as director of the Department of Humanitarian Policy, Ksenia Sushko has accumulated dozens of criminal cases, most of which have not led to results, and she continued to remain in her post. In Dnipro, she even began to be called "unsinkable" due to her ability to avoid punishment despite numerous corruption scandals.

One of the interesting aspects was the attempt to suspend Sushko from work during the investigation, as well as to select a preventive measure in the form of arrest, but the courts sided with her. First, the Zheleznovatsky District Court imposed a night-time house arrest, and then the appellate court overturned this decision.

Not all corruption schemes in the Department of Humanitarian Policy come to the attention of law enforcement agencies. For example, the limited liability company "Budkom", which was founded in May 2023, received contracts from the department worth hundreds of millions of hryvnia just a few months later.

 The lack of experience in carrying out work did not prevent the company from winning tenders for repairs and reconstruction at significantly inflated prices. Moreover, the company has repeatedly been caught inflating material prices when carrying out work on other sites.