The purchase and suspected payments
Ukraine paid the supplier in full before receiving 67,000 body armor vests, according to Eurojust. An independent examination after delivery found that the equipment was substandard and provided less protection than the supplier had declared.
Investigators suspect that a former Ukrainian Defense Ministry official who headed the department responsible for developing material support helped arrange the contract in March 2022 in exchange for payment from the supplier. Eurojust said the suspected illicit payments were then invested in real estate in Nice, France, through another person.
Eurojust did not identify the official or supplier. Earlier reporting by OCCRP and Ukrainska Pravda named the former official suspected in the case as Hennadii (Gennadiy) Vdovychenko. He headed the Department for the Development of Material Support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2021. As of January 2025, he was wanted in Ukraine for evading the investigation and faced charges punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Those outlets reported accusations that Vdovychenko and two other Defense Ministry officials embezzled nearly $47.2 million, or about UAH 2 billion, in state funds tied to sales of substandard uniforms and body armor. OCCRP also reported that at least $1.26 million from military uniform sales reached personal accounts belonging to Vdovychenko's ex-wife, Nataliya Volodymyrivna Vdovychenko.
Earlier reporting on the supplier
A January 2025 investigation by OCCRP and Slidstvo.Info identified Bulgarian company Mimaltemer LTD as the supplier at the center of the faulty uniform and body armor procurement. The investigation reported that its owner, Isa Israilovich Merzhoyev, holds a Russian passport. His wife, French national Oksana Merjou, serves as the company's director and negotiated the faulty uniform sale with Ukraine's Defense Ministry.
The earlier reporting described purchases beyond the 67,000 vests cited in Eurojust's announcement. According to OCCRP, invoices documented deliveries by Mimaltemer of nearly 50,000 uniforms and 82,000 bulletproof vests in 2022 and 2023, for which Ukraine's military paid $91 million.
OCCRP described the Bulgarian business as an intermediary that bought uniforms from a separate manufacturer in Turkey with the same name, Mimaltemer LTD. It reported that the defective uniforms and body armor were resold to Ukraine at a markup exceeding 33%.
For a second body armor contract in the winter of 2022-2023, Slidstvo.Info reported that the Bulgarian company paid about $600 per set in Turkey, with two plates priced at $160 each and the vest at $273. Ukraine's Defense Ministry paid €800 per set, according to the reporting relayed by Ukrainska Pravda.
Searches and cross-border cooperation
Eurojust helped French authorities execute several Ukrainian mutual legal assistance requests, allowing the property in France to be searched. The agency also supported the joint operation so Ukrainian authorities could work alongside their French counterparts and assist with questioning suspects and witnesses.
Authorities seized the property and several bank accounts belonging to people allegedly involved. The participating French authorities were an investigative judge at the Court of Paris and the Central Office against Major Financial Crime. Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office, Security Service and State Bureau of Investigation also took part.
Investigators will next examine the evidence collected during the searches, Eurojust said.
