A 23-year-old woman from Bila Tserkva, currently living abroad, unexpectedly became embroiled in a scandal: she received a staggering 6.6 million hryvnias from the government for organizing the Ukrainian championship in artistic gymnastics.
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SubscribeThis story gained attention following a joint investigation by NGL.media and the sports portal "Tribuna".
Valeria Gutorco, previously unknown, turned out to be the owner of the company "Kyiv Media Production", which became the main contractor for the most expensive sports events in Ukraine during the war. The championship took place at the Kyiv Palace of Sports on September 28-29 – the first time in 45 years.
According to the Prozorro system, this championship was the most expensive event organized by "UkrSportObespechenie." The total budget exceeded 8.5 million hryvnias, of which 6.6 million went specifically to Gutorco's company.
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Journalists analyzed videos from the championship and noticed that some of the equipment listed in the contract was not utilized. The contract mentioned technology for judges, on which over 440 thousand hryvnias were spent. This equipment included laptops, tablets, projectors, and servers.
Nine judges interviewed confirmed that they only saw laptops. However, no one received the 30 tablets that were supposed to be at the championship. Some judges could not recall seeing projectors and confused them with televisions that were in the hall.
Moreover, the video broadcast of the championship also did not show the four projectors with screens that were supposed to be installed.
What is known about Valeria?
Just a year ago, she was searching for a job with a salary of 14,000 hryvnias and worked in the most ordinary places, as a seller in "Moria Pyva" and a consultant in an optical store. She also tried selling sweets and jewelry through Instagram, but that business "did not take off." Now Valeria lives abroad – she is often seen in Belgium and the Netherlands.
At the time of signing multi-million contracts with "UkrSportObespechenie," Gutorco was abroad. When journalists tried to find out how she managed to conclude the deals, Valeria stated that another person signed the contracts by proxy but did not disclose further details.
The Vice-President of the Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation, Stella Zakharova, the organizer of the championship, reacted emotionally to questions about "Kyiv Media Production" and accused journalists of provocation.