Former pro-Russian politician's assets that should have been seized were transferred to person close to senior official

Viktor Medvedchuk is a former pro-Russian Ukrainian politician and businessman; Putin is his daughter’s godfather. Assets of Medvedchuk’s were seized after he was served with a notice of suspicion of high treason. These assets have changed hands several times, ending up in the ownership of a businessman named Valerii Mishchenko who is apparently linked to Oleh Tatarov, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

Source: an investigation by Bihus.Info

Details: In July 2022, the Lychakiv court in Lviv seized three companies - Akadem Klub, Osokorky-7 and Orest - all of which had long-term lease contracts for large land plots with a total area of more than 40 hectares in Kyiv’s Osokorky area, near the banks of the Dnipro.

The court proved that Akadem Klub, Osokorky-7 and Orest were directly connected with Medvedchuk through a Cyprus-registered entity, Pilawer Limited.

At the time when the assets were seized, the Medvedchuk-related structure in Akadem Klub had a partner – a company connected to politician Vadym Stolar. Kyiv-based businessmen Oleksandr Konstantinovskyi and Valerii Mishchenko were partners of Osokorky-7 and Orest.

In autumn 2022, Medvedchuk's associates’ assets in all the companies were transferred to one Oleksandr Biliavskyi from Kherson Oblast, who seems to have been a front man.

According to the journalists’ investigation, the structure changed again in December 2022. Akadem Klub was completely taken over by Petros Togramajyan from Bulgaria, cutting out both Biliavskyi and the Cypriot company associated with Stolar. A man called Vadym Ivanov from Riga replaced Biliavskyi as a partner in Osokorky-7, and Mishchenko and Konstantinovskyi retained their shares. The changes at Orest took place a little later, but also resulted in the aforementioned Mishchenko taking over.

Another surprise is that the registrations for all three firms were carried out by the same notary from Kyiv, for three different people – Mishchenko, Togramajyan and Ivanov.

The investigative journalists believe the only real person in all this was Mishchenko, who is listed in state registers as the owner or co-owner of around fifteen very different companies, some of which were founded back in the 2000s.

In a conversation with the journalists, Mishchenko did not deny his involvement, or the fact that the state had not completed the seizure of the companies linked to Medvedchuk.

The journalists discovered that one of Mishchenko's companies is registered in the city of Kyiv, at 131, Antonovych Street. This building houses several divisions of the state corporation Ukrbud [Ukraine Building – ed.], as well as some of its former employees, including Oleh Tatarov, the deputy head of the President’s Office – he and his family own some property there.

The journalists recalled that when Maksym Mykytas, a former member of the Ukrainian parliament and head of Ukrbud, was put in a pre-trial detention centre [on charges of bribery], his business was divvied up. A new company was registered at the same address – 131, Antonovych Street, near the Akademmistechko metro station – which had previously belonged to Ukrbud. The owners of this firm were Tatarov's father-in-law and Liudmyla Mishchenko, a business partner of the aforementioned Valerii Mishchenko (no relation).

"So the business partner of Valerii Mishchenko who now joined in the transfer of Medvedchuk's shares in several seized companies was someone from Oleh Tatarov's inner circle," the journalists stated.

Bihus.Info suggested that Medvedchuk's assets could not have been transferred without the involvement of law enforcement agencies, since although the court had ordered the assets to be seized, by law, the procedure had to be completed by the investigator or prosecutor.

"When a court rules that something is to be seized, basically it doesn’t mean anything, because the seizure only comes into effect when the investigator or the prosecutor takes the ruling to the nearest registrar. The registrar is supposed to make a note in the state register stating that registration actions are prohibited, so that the asset cannot be transferred to anyone else.

What happened after the Lviv courts ruled that Medvedchuk's company shares were to be seized? Nothing. No one did anything of the sort," the journalists said.

The state was represented by Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation and the Prosecutor's Office in this case.

Background: 

• In February, a court seized assets owned by Oksana Marchenko, wife of Viktor Medvedchuk, with a total value of more than UAH 5.6 billion (about US$154.4 million). Marchenko is suspected of financing Russian occupation groups.
• In April, a court seized over UAH 1 billion (about $26.1 million) worth of assets belonging to Oksana Marchenko with respect to Zaporizhzhia Ferroalloy Plant, and 6.8% of her shares in the A.M. Kuzmin Dniprospetsstal Electrometallurgical Plant in Zaporizhzhia, amounting to over UAH 440 million (about $11.9 million).
• In September, the Prosecutor General's Office announced that Viktor Medvedchuk’s armoured Mercedes-Benz S500 4Matic, which had been seized, had disappeared and been reported missing.

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