Konstantin Bryl who was a government official for all his life and never once done any private business suddenly became the richest man in Ukraine soon after assuming the post of the governor of the Zaporozhye region.
Do not strain your memory for never once in the history of the Zaporozhye region has ever been a governor who would steal with such zeal as Konstantin Bryl.
He steals day and night in the office and at his leisure, on the plane and even talking on the expensive phone. Schemes, kickbacks, scenarios. Konstantin Ivanovich is investing 90% of his time into his one ultimate activity – gaining profit. He loves money and loves to save it. This is his life for the past 25 years. As a result, the ordinary civil servant, who has not been doing any private business even for a day, has become the richest man in Ukraine.
Small-time problem solver with a rank of General
The whole “service to the state and sovereign” of Konstantin Bryl for over the past 25 years is the career of a handyman crook, first a small one, and then a high-ranking one. Bryl is not capable of doing independent work; he has no leadership skills and has no desire to develop any. All that interests him is money and all he cares about is the ability to keep the money without the necessity to share it with anyone.
If we look at Bryl’s career from the very beginning, then this conclusion becomes rather obvious.
The tracked career of this person began in his native Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky district of the Kiev region. As it goes with many people, easy pleasant life for young Konstantin ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Back then Bryl was part of the military contingent located in East Germany. After the fall of Berlin Wall and collapse of the USSR Bryl returned to his homeland where his father helped him by arranging the work at the traffic police for him. In those years, being a traffic cop was like living in a joke “they gave me a gun and a striped wand to make my own living by spinning.” Konstantin was good at spinning and in a few years, he was promoted to the Head of the District Traffic Police.
In the Traffic Police Konstantin Bryl went through a good primary school – he learned how much one should yield to his superiors and what words to use to be appreciated and promoted. For a time it seemed that he had reached his “glass ceiling” and was meant to rule supreme on the roads of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky district where profitable highway to Borispol and further to Kiev is situated giving every opportunity to harass truckers and drivers and – as they say in Ukrainian traffic police – “swing the stick to do the trick”, accepting bribes to buy yourself a mansion or two.
In 1999, on the highway between Boryspil and Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky, a tragedy occurred that affected the whole of Ukraine – a prominent patriot and politician Viacheslav Chornovil crashed. Today there is enough evidence that this was not an accident, but a murder of a future presidential candidate who enjoyed immense popularity and had enormous moral authority among citizens of both Western and Eastern Ukraine.
But back then Interior Minister Kravchenko hastily declared that it was an accident and nothing else. The investigation took place along the path outlined by the Minister; all the “wrong” pieces of evidence were discarded. And Konstantin Bryl who was the chief traffic cop on that highway had a promotion conveniently right after the tragedy occurred – Bryl was made a personal assistant to the very same Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko. It is very likely that Konstantin caught an eye of his superiors because of his ability to deal with evidence and probably he also learned information too delicate for a person to hang around and brag about it unsupervised.
Under Kravchenko, Bryl was finally entrenched as a “retainer” – as Yevgeny Chervonenko recently called him. He became a true shadow, walking behind his chef with a small suitcase, if necessary – ready to rush to where it is required and quickly resolves all issues. A personal retainer capable of dealing with cash that was incoming from lots of different sources. He also made some money for himself as a reward for his quickness and gumption.
Apparently, that was the moment when Bryl was finally and ultimately consumed and corrupted by money. Konstantin gradually improved, gained independence, and achieved new ranks. But in 2001, at the height of the “Cassette Scandal” (kidnapping and murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze), Kravchenko was removed from his post as Minister of the Interior. After a short residue, in 2002 he was appointed as Chairman of the State Tax Administration of Ukraine. Along with him, Bryl followed. The ex-minister used his subordinate traditionally, as a resident, who had to settle in, penetrate and learn where it is better to establish corrupt connections. Bryl also continued his duties as a courier for delivering the cash.
This time a very well-fed life lasted 2 years for Konstantin Bryl until it was disrupted by the Orange Revolution and the subsequent “suicide” of Kravchenko who managed to shot himself in the head. Twice. Then Bryl for the first time in his life entered the public field. Mass media recorded him at the funeral of the ex-minister, carrying a portrait of his former chief with a mournful look on his face. But at that time he already gained the most important asset from Kravchenko – a wide range of shadow acquaintances and unbridled craving for money.
The Orange Revolution did not affect Bryl position in any way – he realized that he could earn much more in the tax department, and enthusiastically indulged himself in “milking” the business. Very quickly Bryl became the youngest general in Ukraine when he was younger than 35 years old. In this status, he “conjured” himself one mansion, then another, then an apartment, after that he got married, had children, and began to buy real estate.
Life without a knife and knuckles
Bryl’s finest hour came when in 2008 he became the Head of the “Internal Security” of the Customs Service, at the same time when Valery Khoroshkovsky was in charge of the entire Customs. All people familiar with the structure of the Ukrainian power and near-power departments know that “own security” is the ugliest and most corrupt department in such structures. And as head of this department, Bryl oversaw the port of Odessa and the huge import flows passing through its terminals.
For the “customs clearance” of each container, a simple dachshund of two hundred dollars was billed, and every evening Konstantyn brought home a small suitcase with the sum of money according to the results of customs-cleared for the day. It was about hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash per day. He gave half up, to the same Khoroshkovsky, and left another half to himself. His only sadness was the lack of time to figure out where to spend the vast amounts of money he gained.
But many others have coveted for such fabulous sums of money and a lot of people wanted to take the place of Bryl. Again, the envious rivals appeared rather quickly, because Konstantyn shared only minimal amounts of money, trying to keep to himself as much as possible. Therefore, the music did not play for long, and already after half a year of “overseeing” the Odessa Customs, Bryl was caught taking a bribe from a person hired by his competitors. The case was hushed up, but Bryl had to leave the profitable position at Odessa Customs. Once again envious colleagues took advantage of the situation and whispered a naturally sounding story to Khoroshkovsky claiming that Bryl “stashed a lot of money without sharing it with him”.
After the scandal, Konstantin Ivanovich moved to the Security Service of Ukraine and there started to look for a new place where he in his flashy general uniform could fit. During the reign of Yanukovych Bryl was biding his time and spending reserves but after the Maidan, he returned to the SSU to “fight against corruption”. The “fight” took him less than a year. This experience was utilized by Bryl to create the image of a security officer and a seasoned fighter against corruption in the Zaporozhye region. With the same amount of energy and inspiration, Bryl also engaged himself in a budget allotment.
Currently, the governorship of the Zaporozhye region for Bryl is a coveted position where he can grab a large amount of money after several years of neglect. And the expenses of General Bryl are quite significant. Share in the property of hunting grounds in tens of thousands of hectares. Payment for several huge houses, the maintenance of an huge automobile park of all his family members and their parents, including his own and his wife. An impressive staff of servants in all houses and apartments – 25 people! 2 sons from his first marriage live in Germany. Here he has his second wife and 3 daughters, who are accustomed not to deny themselves purses worth thousand dollars and dresses worth five grand. And at least several times a year you definitely need to fly to decent places where people live and ask the price for real estate there. And Konstantin himself loves expensive brand things and accessories – gold pens, various coats and jackets worth ten thousand dollars, and much more.
All this “expense department” of Konstantin Bryl was formed not in one day, but over many years. Because he perceived the civil service as a place where he could and should steal. Steal as much as possible, in a big way, without the need to share with anyone else.
Therefore, our Chairman of the Regional Administration is not a tax official, not a customs official and not an SSU officer, no matter how much he tells us about his experience. The true and main profession of Konstantin Bryl – GRAND THEFT. He is a thief and he steals the money of Ukrainian people.
Source: “Промзон. нет”