SBI confirmed searches at the home of VYRIY INDUSTRIES owner Oleksiy Babenko. The case concerns overpricing of drones

Law enforcement officers are investigating a possible artificial inflating of prices for drones purchased for almost 7 billion hryvnias of state funds. The name of the manufacturer is not being reported, but today searches were conducted in this case at the owner of the company VYRIY INDUSTRIES and shareholder of Babel Oleksiy Babenko.

This was reported by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office.

Investigators claim that in 2025 a private company supplied drones under government contracts, but investigators are now investigating the theory that officials may have artificially inflated their cost.

According to their version, they may have done this by unjustifiably including production, administrative, and other costs at a higher price in the cost price, which affected the final price.

The investigation is also checking whether they could have used extensive networks of individual entrepreneurs and business entities to execute transactions and artificially shape the companyʼs expenses, including for the possible withdrawal of funds.

The State Bureau of Investigation claims that the State Financial Monitoring Service has identified questionable financial transactions worth over UAH 197 million — they are being checked for possible money laundering.

As part of the investigation, more than 150 individual entrepreneurs in various fields of activity were identified. Some of them claim that they did not actually carry out activities, and that they gave documents for registering individual entrepreneurs to third parties for money.

"During searches conducted at the residences of individual heads of individual entrepreneurs who performed multi-million contracts, it was established that their manner and lifestyle do not indicate the presence of any wealth and income. Also, during searches at places of business activity, significant amounts of cash were discovered that were not accounted for in the primary financial statements, which may indicate the use of tax evasion schemes and the withdrawal of non-cash funds to the accounts of controlled business entities for their further legalization," the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office added.

The investigation is ongoing, currently establishing all the circumstances, those involved, and the amount of damage caused to the state. After the completion of the checks, law enforcement officers will decide whether to declare the suspects in the case suspicious.

• On the morning of July 7, the State Bureau of Investigation came to search the home of Oleksiy Babenko, the owner of the drone manufacturing company VYRIY INDUSTRIES. Searches were also conducted at the homes of his brother and mother and at the company. During the search, $3 500 was found in Babenkoʼs possession and all data was removed from his mobile phone.
• Previously, Babel wrote that after the publication of the investigation into torture in the "Skelya" assault regiment, a large-scale campaign to discredit the publication and the investor began on anonymous Telegram channels and Facebook groups.
• In particular, dozens of publications and videos stated that the publication was made at the request of Oleksiy Babenko and that in this way he was fighting the General Staff and playing into the hands of the Russians.
• VYRIY INDUSTRIES drones are considered among the cheapest in Ukraine, which is why the company has a large share of the drone market. Regarding the searches, the company made an official statement.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.