A huge waste or how 6 employees of Anti-Corruption Action center make millions of dollars on Europe

Non-governmental organization «Anti-corruption Action Center» (hereinafter – NGO AntAC) is a well-known organization in Ukraine, that was founded by Vitaliy Shabunin and Daria Kaleniuk. In 2022-2024, the staff number of the NGO AntAC was only 6 (!) employees (in 2025, there were just 5 employees). Even though the organization of Shabunin and Kaleniuk is non-profitable, in recent years it has been able to receive income that equals a budget of a small city in Ukraine.

Where does the money come from?

According to official data from the Anti-Corruption Action Center, between 2013 and 2024, the ACC received over $8 million in funding from various donors.

The largest amount of funding during these years came from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—nearly $1.7 million. Next comes funding from the European Union: a total of over $1 million. The International Renaissance Foundation (IRF) provided the ACC with $936,000 in funding, while the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) allocated an additional $515,000 to the organization. The European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI) funded the CPC’s activities with $500,000 between 2019 and 2024. The World Bank provided the organization with nearly the same amount.

The CPC even received funds from the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs—$95,000—the Swiss Embassy—$45,000—the French Embassy—$22,000—and the Eurasia Foundation. In total, the CPC received funding from nearly 30 donors from around the world. Most of those on this list are European.

European millions

For example, the CPC’s top donor is the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative. This is an anti-corruption support program of the European Union in Ukraine, funded by the EU and co-funded and implemented by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 2017, the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative has consistently supported the work of investigative media in Ukraine and collaborated with the largest national and regional teams whose reports expose illegal schemes in Ukraine.

The anti-corruption program launched in June 2017 with a total budget of €22.9 million (€15 million allocated by the EU and €7.9 million by the Danish government). In January 2024, the third phase of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine began, which will run until April 2027. For this period, €17.5 million is earmarked for state agencies such as NABU, NACP, the Ministry of Regional Development, SAPO, VAKS, the Verkhovna Rada’s Anti-Corruption Committee, and others. Meanwhile, according to official data from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, more than 20 civil society organizations were included in the list of grant recipients of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative for 2024–2026. In particular, the NGO "Automaidan" (received $178,000 in 2024–2025), the NGO "Tom 14" (bihus.info received $425,000 in 2024–2026), the Anti-Corruption Action Center (which received $134,000 in 2024–2025), the Center for Economic Strategy (which received $115,000 in 2024–2025), and many other organizations.

In January 2026, the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative announced a new grant competition. The total budget is €200,000.

Where is Europe looking?

In 2022, the CEC earned 41.1 million hryvnias. According to data from late 2024 to early 2025, roughly the same amount was allocated for the operating expenses of the city of Malyn (Zhytomyr Oblast), where 41.3 million hryvnias were budgeted annually for salaries and administrative costs. In 2023, the Anti-Corruption Center’s revenue declined slightly to 37.6 million hryvnias. Nevertheless, this is the budget of a “wealthy” satellite village of a major city or a community with large industrial taxpayers. For example, some rural territorial communities in the Kyiv, Lviv, or Odesa regions had similar revenues during those years.

The year 2024 was the most profitable for the Anti-Corruption Center. The organization dedicated to fighting corruption received 58.4 million hryvnias in revenue. Again, this is the annual budget of a small territorial community. In 2025, the revenue of Shabunin and Kalenyuk’s Anti-Corruption Center declined slightly but still amounted to a substantial 51.5 million hryvnias. In other words, over the four years of the war, the ACC’s revenue totaled nearly 190 million hryvnias. If we divide this amount by the organization’s staff size—that is, by 6 employees—it comes out to over 30 million hryvnias in revenue per person. Incidentally, all these funds from European and international donors were spent essentially at their own discretion and for their own needs, and only a small portion was directed toward charitable causes. According to reports on the use of income (profits) by the non-profit organization, the CPC receives funds in the form of charitable aid and spends them on its own needs (80–93.5%) and on charitable aid (6.5–20%).

So where is Europe looking? Well, let’s call a spade a spade, because all of this looks like legalized wastefulness, and Europeans are simply throwing their citizens’ money away. And if that is the case, then the CPC and Co. are misappropriating state or corporate European funds for their own benefit. And they are doing so openly.

Thanks to this approach, CPC Board Chair Vitaliy Shabunin and the organization’s Executive Director and co-founder Daria Kalenyuk earn millions of hryvnias in salaries and payments as sole proprietors. In dollar terms, the monthly income of Vitaliy Shabunin and his colleague Daria Kalenyuk amounts to thousands of dollars each month, which is comparable to the salary of a Member of the European Parliament. But does their work bring the same benefits to Europe? Should European taxpayers fund the Anti-Corruption Action Center, which, after all, enriches such cunning and resourceful entrepreneurs?