"Questions to the leadership of the NBU": Pyshnyy was asked about tender schemes at Oschadbank involving a Russian supplier – media reports
An attempt by a Deputy Chairman of the Board of Oschadbank to halt the procurement of equipment from a company linked to the production of Russian "Orlan" drones resulted in criminal prosecution against him. Behind this whistleblower smear campaign may stand none other than the Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, Andriy Pyshny, who is allegedly trying to conceal large-scale corruption schemes at the state bank from international partners.
As reported by the Focus website, this was stated by former Member of Parliament and Ukrainian Armed Forces serviceman Boryslav Bereza.
According to Bereza, the scandal erupted around Oschadbank's tender for the procurement of battery units with inverters worth 140.9 million hryvnias. The tender committee, headed by Deputy Chairman of the Board (CFO) Oleh Strynzha, rejected a cheaper offer from LLC "INCOMTECH PROEKT."
The official reason cited was "reputational non-compliance", as 75% of the company is owned by Russian citizen Yuriy Shumilin, whose Russian holding company PT Electronics appears on the sanctions lists of the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and several other countries.
"PT Electronics is sanctioned for supplying microchips and components for the production of Russian 'Orlan-10' drones, 'Leyer' radar systems, and other military equipment of the aggressor state. Shumilin's Ukrainian companies are already under SBU investigation for organizing a financial support mechanism for the aggressor state," — Bereza emphasized.
Despite the obvious national security threat, the Pecherskyi District Prosecutor's Office charged Strynzha with causing financial damages by rejecting the "cheaper" offer, after which he was suspended from his position. Bereza stresses that this decision is absurd and appears to be a contract-style persecution of an official who personally "stopped an attempt to channel money from a company directly ensuring the operational capability of enemy drones into Oschadbank."
The former MP notes that the true reason behind Strynzha's prosecution runs deeper. Long before the battery incident, the CFO had exposed years-long schemes of Oschadbank's procurement system being tailored to specific suppliers. He reported this to the Supervisory Board, whose foreign members even brought in consultants to develop anti-corruption recommendations — which were never implemented.
This whistleblowing activity, according to Bereza's sources, seriously alarmed bank management, particularly Board Member Yevhen Drachko-Yermolenko, described as a person who "enjoys the unconditional trust of NBU Governor Andriy Pyshny."
"Mr. Drachko-Yermolenko's concern was passed on to Mr. Pyshny. The procurement schemes at Oschadbank had been built over years, and now some Strynzha could destroy everything. Today he went to the Supervisory Board, tomorrow he might write to the IMF," — Bereza noted, adding that NBU leadership faced serious risk of exposure before Western donors. Therefore, according to him, a decision was made to "discredit the whistleblower himself."
The former deputy publicly appealed to the SBU leadership, calling for an investigation into the situation as a direct threat to national security, and posed pointed questions directly to the NBU Governor:
"I have a question for Mr. Pyshny: how and why did a company owned by a supplier of parts for 'Orlan' drones end up in Oschadbank's tender at all? What 'history of cooperation' links NBU and Oschadbank leadership with Mr. Shumilin? It is time to find out who exactly in Oschadbank's and NBU's leadership lobbied so strongly for the interests of a Russian weapons business that they went as far as outright fabrication of a case," — Boryslaw Bereza concluded.