Usov founded Gutenbergz in 2011 with partners. The company produced interactive books and electronic textbooks. It was this company that found itself at the center of a case that the State Bureau of Investigations has been conducting since June 2019.
What the SBI is investigating
The case concerns the procurement of school electronic textbooks in the Mykolaiv region. In late 2017, a free online textbook platform was created under a state order. However, in 2018 and 2019, the education department of the Mykolaiv regional state administration and the municipal institution conducting the procurements announced tenders that were won by the private enterprise Electronic Solutions. For two procurements, it received more than 15 million hryvnias for access to textbook databases managed by Gutenbergz.
According to the investigation, the money was withdrawn and cashed out, and the firms underpaid taxes in collusion with employees of the State Fiscal Service in the Odesa region. As 368.media reported, searches were conducted at the home of education department director Olena Udovychenko, at the head of the regional council Viktoriia Moskalenko, who denies involvement, at Usov himself, at the Gutenbergz office, at an accountant, and at the administrator of the website. At that time, no suspicions had been announced personally to Usov, and there is no verdict in the case.
What the seizure of accounts means
The seizure of accounts is a procedural measure. It blocks the movement of money in the company's accounts during the investigation and does not in itself establish guilt. 368.media directly names the firm as a subject of the proceedings, and it is in that capacity that the editorial team describes Gutenbergz in its text.
Other outlets have also described the textbook scheme. TSN, Antikor, and AIN wrote about it, and AIN mentioned a search warrant in the Gutenbergz case dated December 17, 2019. Antikor gives the date of the account seizure as November 25, 2019, while TSN limits itself to the wording "in November 2019." Journalists from 368.media learned of the court decision only in January 2020, when they reviewed the case materials.
Usov denies any connection to Electronic Solutions, acknowledging only cooperation "in a separate area." He regards the investigation as pressure related to the competition for the post of head of the agency. This position was conveyed by 368.media with reference to :
"This started to unfold when it became clear that I was leading in the competition"
Appointment amid investigation
The competition for the post of head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine was held in late 2019 after the dismissal of the agency's previous head, Pavlo Dehtyarenko, whom the government removed from office on November 3, 2019. The competition lasted from November 25 to 29, and 18 candidates submitted documents. The Cabinet of Ministers declared Usov the winner on December 27, 2019, and by an order dated January 24, 2020, appointed him head of the agency for five years with a six-month probationary period.
In addition to Gutenbergz, Usov founded the company Kwambio, which was engaged in 3D printing with ceramics. The project appeared in 2013–2014. In 2014, it won the IDCEE competition, then entered the TechStars Boston program. In 2017, the company received $500,000 from Empire State Capital Partners and Impulse VC, a fund linked to Roman Abramovich.
Formally, Usov's work at the agency began in late January, and on February 5, 2020, he was introduced to the staff of the State Space Agency of Ukraine.
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