Dmytro Sennychenko led the State Property Fund for two years before he resigned on Nov. 18. Responsible for the country’s Big Privatization program, he said that he worked round the clock along with his team, and it was time for him “to have a bit of a rest.”
Sennychenko said his decision to quit was not related to the controversial privatization of Kyiv’s iconic Bilshovyk machine building plant on Oct. 27. The plant was sold for a mere $53 million — allegedly, less than half its market value — at what appeared to be a sham auction. The buyer was a company linked to Ukrainian tycoon and former politician Vasyl Khmelnytsky.
During Sennychenko’s tenure, the fund held more than 3,700 privatization auctions bringing over $170 million to the state budget.
