How Bakanov and Naumov built corruption schemes in the SBU: a businessman revealed the details

Entrepreneur Serhiy Vaganyan revealed details of the functioning of a large-scale corruption system in the Security Service of Ukraine during the chairmanship of Ivan Bakanov. According to him, the special service was transformed into a tool for systemic racketeering by big business and the collection of informal payments.

As Censor.NET reports , the businessman said this in an interview with Boryslav Bereza, a member of the People’s Deputy of the 8th convocation.

Vaganyan, in particular, said that for a long time he was part of the team of Ivan Bakanov and Andriy Naumov, providing for their financial needs. He said that the relationship, which began with friendly assistance, quickly grew into an outright demand for a share of the profit. “Then this story grew into a certain percentage, which reached 30-50% of the profit,” the businessman emphasized.

According to the businessman, in exchange for these funds, he was promised complete absence of problems with regulatory authorities and protection from searches. Vaganyan claims that the monthly “gratuities” sometimes reached $10 million. He had free access to the service’s buildings and used his own helicopter for transportation, while the funds were transferred directly to the management, and for refusal to pay, businessmen were threatened with a complete stoppage of work or physical danger.

“They wanted to eliminate me twice”: Vaganyan published photo evidence of corruption of former SBU leadership

In addition, Vaganyan showed unique footage confirming the receipt of huge sums of cash by former SBU officials. The photographs show the process of counting money in offices and bundles of banknotes in the leadership’s armored cars.

The entrepreneur clarified that he began secretly recording these events solely out of fear for his own life. He realized that the impunity of officials made his stay in Ukraine dangerous. “I saw how Naumov and Bakanov behaved with great impunity. I guess my self-preservation instinct kicked in,” Vaganyan explained.

He also said that due to his possession of compromising information, he survived two attempts on his life. According to him, the investigation of these incidents did not yield any results, as the SBU structures blocked any investigative actions. The businessman is currently abroad, but expressed full readiness to cooperate with NABU detectives and SAPO prosecutors. He claims that the materials he collected will help prove the guilt of the ex-officers in court and reveal the mechanisms of their enrichment.

Trading in NSDC sanctions: how the secret service was used to eliminate competitors

Serhiy Vaganyan also reported that the former SBU leadership turned the sanctions mechanism of the National Security and Defense Council into a profitable business and a tool of pressure. He noted that the documents for imposing restrictions were prepared by SBU specialists on the instructions of Andriy Naumov to protect the interests of individual entrepreneurs, in particular Oleksandr Akst.

“Aksta’s people prepared a dossier on competitors, handed over the documents to Naumov, “finalized them in the SBU” and sent them to the National Security and Defense Council,” Vaganyan said.

According to the businessman, due to such manipulations, the state budget lost hundreds of millions of hryvnias in tax revenues every month. The scheme worked simply: competitors were blocked through sanctions lists, forcing the market to work through designated intermediaries. Those who agreed to the conditions of Naumov and Bakanov received the “green light” at customs, – added Vaganyan.

The businessman stressed that the then head of the SBU was only interested in financial results, not national security. He added that sanctions were used both to punish dissenters and to obtain funds for their removal.

“Bakanov was just a portrait”: who really led the SBU

Serhiy Vaganyan revealed the details of the internal management of the Security Service of Ukraine during the time of Ivan Bakanov. According to him, the real power in the department belonged to Andriy Naumov, who headed the Main Department of Internal Security. The businessman noted that the then head of the service performed the function of only an official representative, while his subordinate built his own hierarchy.

“It is impossible to separate Bakanov and Naumov. When Zelensky is now so diligently hiding Bakanov – his classmate and a person who, together with Naumov, “surrendered” a third of the country for money, then, to put it mildly, this is a very serious crime against our statehood and integrity… They cannot be separated, because Naumov actually led the service, and Bakanov was only a portrait of the SBU,” Vaganyan said.

The businessman emphasized that Naumov personally controlled personnel appointments throughout the country. This concerned both the heads of regional departments and local internal security units. Such an arrangement of loyal people, according to Vaganyan, made it possible to actually intercept the management of the special service. He associates these actions with large-scale losses for the integrity of the state.

At the same time, according to the businessman, former SBU official Andriy Naumov, who is suspected of passing confidential information to the enemy, continues to influence Ukrainian security structures. Vaganyan claims that Naumov has retained his connections and uses them to conduct commercial activities.

“He receives certain information. Moreover, he develops a certain business together with representatives of business and the Office of the President and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He still influences the law enforcement system, not as much as before, but he does have influence,” the businessman emphasizes.

What is known about the Naumov case?

The Censor.NET edition recalls key events.

• In January 2024, former general, ex-head of the Main Department of Internal Security of the SBU, Andriy Naumov, who was sentenced to a year in prison in Serbia for money laundering, was released.

• The court clarified that Naumov was released from a Serbian prison in early December 2023. However, due to the consideration of an appeal against the sentence, his documents were seized and he was banned from leaving the country.

• There are two criminal proceedings against Naumov in Ukraine. One concerns the simultaneous receipt of a salary from the SBU and from a state-owned enterprise where Naumov worked before joining the special service. The other concerns the period when he headed the “Center for Organizational, Technical and Information Support for the Management of the Exclusion Zone.” According to the investigation, Naumov entered into a knowingly unprofitable contract with a fictitious enterprise and unjustifiably accrued bonuses for himself.

• From the summer of 2019 to the summer of 2021, Naumov headed the Main Directorate of Internal Security of the SBU under the leadership of Ivan Bakanov. In October 2020, President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded Naumov the military rank of brigadier general, although at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he stripped him of it, calling the former SBU official a “traitor.”

• Naumov left Ukraine on the eve of Russia’s invasion, and in the summer of 2022 he was detained in Serbia with undeclared cash – about 600 thousand euros and $120 thousand. There, a case was opened against him and he was sent to a pre-trial detention center.

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