The Ukrainian Armed Forces are entangled in a widening fraud investigation over military uniform procurement.
A Turkish company is expected to formally join the investigation as a victim, with former bureaucrats already implicated in the case.
On 27 November, the National Police of Ukraine carried out a series of operations across 38 locations. These targeted a network accused of making illicit profits under a 2022 contract signed between Sinclair and Wilde and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, involving alleged price inflation.
According to a news released by the National Police of Ukraine, among the detained suspects are Roman Balykin, an advisor to the former Deputy Minister of Defense Vyacheslav Shapovalov, as well as Igor Franchuk, the son-in-law of former President Leonid Kuchma, who served two terms as a member of parliament. Authorities are still searching for Philippe Haim Solomon, a French-Israeli national and the main suspect in a $10 million corruption case.
He has a record of fraud in many countries
It was reported that Philippe Hababou Solomon, who could not be caught because he was abroad, disappeared without paying the progress payments of the Turkish company Grup İmpeks, which produced the uniforms. Philippe Hababou Solomon, who was convicted in countries such as the USA and France, has investigations opened against him in countries such as Türkiye, Ukraine and Spain. It is also known that Solomon, who is known as an international fraudster who uses more than one name, tried to run for parliamentary candidacy in France in 2024 to get rid of the investigations against him, but he was not successful.
Turkish company in target
Among those who filed a lawsuit against Philippe Hababou Solomon is Grup İmpeks from Türkiye. It is known that Solomon is currently on trial for qualified fraud at the 15th High Criminal Court of the Istanbul Courthouse.
Within the scope of the uniform tender he won in 2022, Solomon agreed to pay 25.6 million dollars to Grup İmpeks as the manufacturer and sold the same amount of uniforms to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense for 36 million dollars through his own company Sinclair and Wilde.
According to the National Police of Ukraine, Solomon was to share the differential of more than $10 million with Roman Balykin and Igor Franchuk, who arranged for the contracts to be signed by Defense Ministry officials and for the $22 million advance payment to be made without any auditing. However, the bureaucrats who were defrauded by Solomon did not receive the full bribe they were promised.
The ministry and police jointly fight against corruption
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is closely following the corruption case that was carried out during the term of former Minister Oleksiy Reznikov. The operation, which was announced on the official page of the National Police of Ukraine, is also among the shared information that they are carrying out in coordination with the Ministries of Defense and Finance. While the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, which is the victim of the case, is providing all kinds of support to the National Police of Ukraine, it is claimed that the Turkish company Grup İmpeks will also make an official application as a victim of the case.
