The former deputy head of the Presidential Office Smyrnov denies influencing the decision of the Antimonopoly Committee for a bribe

The former deputy head of the Presidential Office (OP) Andriy Smyrnov denies the suspicion of law enforcement agencies that he influenced someone in the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) to help the owner of a construction company resolve the issue with the tender, and this person offered $100 000 for help.

He spoke about this in an interview with Babel.

"We are convinced that in the criminal case materials, there can be no evidence — absolutely none — that Smyrnov called anyone at the Antimonopoly Committee, gave any instructions, or in any other illegal way influenced the decision. I have never communicated with anyone from the Antimonopoly Committee," says Smyrnov.

He also said that the person who offered him a bribe is a suspect in the case. She was charged with "offering an improper benefit".

Smyrnov said that this person is a foreman from Odesa. He and his friends invested in the construction of dachas in the Odesa region, but since January 2022 they left this project and were no longer interested in it at all. According to the former deputy head of OP, he has known this person since 2020 or 2021, and has been corresponding with her since the beginning of 2022.

“In this correspondence from the beginning of 2022, a person writes to me that he encountered some difficulties at the level of the Odesa officials who sabotage or somehow change the results of tenders. The text continues: “Ready to work with Prymorsky for $100 000,” says Smyrnov.

Then he sent this person to the Antimonopoly Committee and said, “apply to the Antimonopoly Committee with a complaint”. And then a month later, this person wrote again that “the Odesa officials are making messing up again”.

After that, Smyrnov asks what his company is called. The person writes the name and after 40 seconds writes that "we have been declared the winners".

"I say once again — Iʼm interested in the name of the company, as a person who a month ago (according to the investigation) was supposed to help this same company resolve some issues in the Antimonopoly Committee (...) And the NABU detective attaches the protocol of the offer opening and the announcement of the tender winner, which are dated 14 minutes (it seems) before I asked about the name of the company. Tell me, did I influence anything?", says Smyrnov.

According to him, NABU conducted a huge number of investigative actions, they talked about this in the petitions they sent to the court, for the extension of the pre-trial investigation. Smyrnov asked to be questioned about these circumstances, but they did not do so.

The former deputy head of the presidential office says that after the investigation was completed, he asked to open part of the criminal case materials, which concern his alleged pressure on the Antimonopoly Committee, "which never happened in his life".

But this was refused. Smyrnov says that in theory all the materials should have been opened, but in practice this did not happen, because "they only provide those documents that they want to provide".

What preceded

Andriy Smyrnov was the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine from September 10, 2019 to March 29, 2024. In May 2024, he was suspected of illegal enrichment of UAH 15.7 million. According to the investigation conducted by the NABU, in 2020-2022, the official purchased two cars (Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen), two motorcycles (Honda and BMW), three parking spaces in Kyiv, an apartment in a prestigious residential complex in Lviv, and a land plot in Transcarpathia.

And on April 16, 2025, Smyrnov was informed of new suspicions in this case — money laundering and bribery. The investigation claims that in 2019-2021, the suspect illegally received money, which he decided to launder through the construction of private houses with a total area of over 300 m² in the recreation area of the Odesa region.

Detectives also say that in 2022, the top official was approached by the owner of a construction company with a bribe offer in the form of works and services worth $100 000 for the construction of one of the aforementioned houses on the coast. In return, he asked to assist in the adoption by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine of a decision to cancel the results of the tender in which a competitor won, and to ensure the victory of his company in the new tender.

According to the investigation, the top official accepted the offer, used his official position and fulfilled the obligations he had undertaken. AMCU later made the “necessary” decision.

Later, Smyrnov himself reacted to the new suspicion. He believes that the new suspicions were declared to him because the investigation into another case — about illegal enrichment — is expiring.

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