A businessman related to Tatarov twice embezzled Medvedchuk’s assets: Bihus.info investigation

The unarrested assets of ex-Deputy Viktor Medvedchuk, accused of high treason, including three Kyiv companies “Academ-Club”, “Osokorky 7” and “Orest”, were transferred to two foreigners and Kyiv businessman Valery Mishchenko. These companies, which had long-term lease contracts for large plots of land on the banks of the Dnieper in Kyiv, were to be arrested as early as 2022. However, law enforcement agencies have not made the appropriate changes to the state register, and a new residential complex is already being built on these lands.

As reported Bihus.Info investigators, Oleksandr Bilyavskyi, the bodyguard of People’s Deputy Vadym Stolar, initially became the owner of the companies. Later, he was replaced by Bulgarian Petros Togramajyan, Latvian Vadym Ivanov and Ukrainian Valery Mishchenko. Journalists note that only Mishchenko was a “real player” and had connections with the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Oleg Tatarov, which, according to them, helped to implement this scheme, leaving the Ministry of Justice, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the SBU aside.

In the summer of 2022, the Lychakiv Court of Lviv made a decision to seize Medvedchuk’s assets, which included the companies “Academ-Club”, “Osokorky 7” and “Orest”. In all three firms, the investigators of the State Bureau of Investigation found one of the leaders of the banned party “OPZZH”. The case file states that these assets belonged to Medvedchuk’s entourage through a Cypriot firm and a Hungarian denomination.

Despite the court order, the arrest did not actually take place, as the investigators and prosecutors did not contact the state registrar to enter the relevant data in the register, which allowed to change the owners of the companies. As a result, after a few months, the owners of the companies changed. The first new owner was 28-year-old Oleksandr Bilyavsky from the Kherson region, who acted as a proxy for Vadym Stolar.

At the end of 2022, the new owners not only “kicked” Bilyavskyi out of the companies, but also took away the shares of Medvedchuk and Stolar. Petros Tohramadjian, who lives in Bulgaria and, according to the media, has a criminal past and a relative who supports Vladimir Putin, became the owner of Akadem Club. Togramajyan received the shares of Medvedchuk and Stolar in the company.

The Orest company was completely taken over by Kyiv businessman Valery Mishchenko. The investigators also discovered that another company, “Viktoria”, which belonged to Medvedchuk and had land on lease, ended up being owned by Mishchenko.

The journalists of Bihus.Info assumed that the foreigners were front persons, and the whole scheme was implemented in the interests of Mishchenko with the assistance of Tatarov. They noted that Tatarov has influence on law enforcement agencies, which is why investigators and prosecutors could “forget” to seize Medvedchuk’s assets.

After receiving information from journalists, the Prosecutor General’s Office turned to the Ministry of Justice, which in October 2023 canceled the registration actions with the new owners and returned the assets at the time of the seizure. However, the Bulgarian Togramajyan, the Latvian Ivanov and the Ukrainian Mishchenko were able to challenge this order in the Commercial Court of Kyiv, getting their companies back.

The court found that the Attorney General’s Office should have known about the transcribing problem before the journalists were notified, thus missing the two-month deadline for appeals. In addition, the court noted that the registration actions were legal, since the rewriting of the companies took place before the adoption of the law prohibiting the rewriting of the assets of sanctioned persons.