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Ukrainian officials who were in power under former Kremlin-aligned Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych have bought properties in Dubai worth millions of dollars.
This includes civil servants who have failed to declare these assets or others who have faced accusations of corruption, abuse of public position or treason, a research by Schemes, the research unit of the Ukrainian Service of Radio Free Europe, has found.
Schemes Research is part of a cross-border collaboration of more than 70 media outlets around the globe that have analyzed leaked data detailing Dubai properties for purchase or use in the period 2020- 2022.
Among the former Ukrainian officials, journalists have also found in the documents the names of Yanukovych's Minister of Ecology and the names of many legislators from the Party of Regions, led by former President Yanukovych, whose decision to flee Ukraine at the time of mass protests in 2014 was one of the impetuses that resulted in Moscow's annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula, and then the launch of Russia's war in Ukraine in 2022.
Although Ukrainian laws do not prevent nationals – including government officials – from buying UAE property, anti-corruption watchdogs have long noted that the Gulf country has become a magnet for illicit wealth.
Tom Keatinge, director of the Center for Finance and Security at the Royal United Services Institute, based in London, told Radio Free Europe that the Emirates has become a place where "money is safe and questions are few".
"So if you're someone who has money and you want to move it overseas, the Emirates has historically been an ideal place to do that," Keatinge said.
'bags of money'
Among the names most mentioned in the research is that of Mykola Zlochevskiy, who served as Minister of Ecology and founded the Burisma Group, the largest private natural gas company.
Burisma has been a topic of discussion in American domestic politics as one of the board members was Hunter Biden, the son of the current president of the United States, Joe Biden.
In July 2019, Zlochevskiy bought two apartments in a residence in Dubai - The Palm - a complex on the shores of the Persian Gulf, worth almost 11 million euros.
Although Zlochevskiy was not a civil servant at the time of the purchase of the properties, Ukrainian authorities later declared him a wanted person on suspicion of embezzlement and bribery worth $4 million.
He later pleaded guilty to the charges. As part of the agreement he reached with prosecutors, Zlochevskiy donated more than 15 million dollars to the Ukrainian army to buy drones and additional equipment.
Ownership of two apartments in Dubai was transferred to Zlochevskiy's daughter, Anna, in 2022.
The records show that the former minister used the Cyprus passport to buy the properties.
Neither Zlochevskiy nor his daughter have responded to requests for comment on the properties.
The journalists of the Swedish public broadcaster SVT managed to conduct a visit to the properties, during which, the journalists were told that they can buy apartments with "bags of money" or cryptocurrencies, and that they are asked zero questions about the source of income.
"You won't have any questions from any property department, especially from the construction company," the employee of a property sales company told a Swedish broadcaster reporter who presented himself as interested in buying a property.
"Anyone who wants to buy, can buy."
He has also said that buying properties with cash in hand helps clients to avoid the banks' questions about the origin of the money.
"If you sell a property and transfer all the money to a bank account, then there is no problem, no one will ask you where the money came from to buy the sold property," said the sales official.
A representative of the real estate company, Damac, has said that it is not in the company's policy to recommend that customers buy a property with cash.
"If your journalist were to continue with the process of purchasing a property, you would witness the measures we apply to transactions," said the Damac company, adding that it will investigate the statements made by its employee to journalists.
The uncertainty that exists in the real estate market in Dubai makes it difficult for governments to ensure that their citizens, who own property there, pay the necessary taxes.
"If a Ukrainian owns a property in Dubai and sells it or rents it out, he must pay taxes," Ukrainian economist Vyacheslav Cherkashin told Schemes.
"But, of course, no one will be in a hurry to pay them", added Cherkashin.
Luxury real estate
A number of lawmakers who were part of Yanukovych's now-banned Party of Regions are on the list of Ukrainian officials included in the "Dubai Secrets" data, including Vyacheslav Bohuslayev, the former deputy responsible for the southern region of Zaporizhia.
Bohuslayev was the president of the Motor Sich airline company, which the Ukrainian government made state property on the eve of the start of Russia's war in Ukraine in February 2022.
In the period 2009-2018, Bohuslayev and his son Oleksandr bought at least 19 apartments and office premises in Dubai, worth about 15 million dollars.
Njëra prej banesave është regjistruar në emër të Bohuslayevit, derisa të tjerat në emër të të birit, i cili ka shërbyer si zëvendësshef i bordit të kompanisë Motor Sich.
Lidhja e tyre me këto prona nuk është ditur kurrë më parë.
Por, tani vetëm pesë prej 19 pronave vazhdojnë të jenë nën pronësi të Bohuslayevsit.
Qysh prej vitit 2019, kohës kur Bohuslayev nuk ka qenë më deputet, familja e tij ka nisur t’i shesë pronat në Dubai.
Bohuslayev është ndaluar prej autoriteteve ukrainase për zbatim të ligjit më 2022, pas nisjes së luftës së Rusisë në Ukrainë, nën akuzat për tradhti, financim të terrorizmit dhe qasjes refuzuese ndaj ushtrisë ukrainase, akuza të cilat ai i ka mohuar.
Aktualisht ai është në mbajtje, të paktën deri më 10 qershor.
Hulumtimet e kryera prej ekipit të Skemave në të kaluarën kanë treguar për lidhjet e Bohuslayevit me përfaqësues të kompanive ushtarake të Iranit, përfshirë ato që prodhojnë dronët Shahed, të cilët Rusia i përdor për të sulmuar Ukrainën.
Zyra e Prokurorit të Përgjithshëm të Ukrainës i ka thënë Radios Evropa e Lirë se i duhen informacione të besueshme për pronat e familjes së Bohuslayevit në Emiratet e Bashkuara Arabe, mirëpo që “janë duke u marrë masa për të identifikuar dhe konfiskuar” pronën e huaj që është në emrin e Bohuslayevit dhe djalit të tij.
Pyetjet që i janë nisur Bohuslayevit përmes avokatit të tij për pronat në Dubai, kanë mbetur pa përgjigje.
Një tjetër ish-deputet i Partisë së Rajoneve, ish-zëvendësshefi i Shërbimit Shtetëror për Migrimin, Vasyl Hrytsak dhe familja e tij, kanë blerë dy banesa në Dubai, në vlerë të mbi 700.000 dollarëve.
Më 2019, pronësia e njërës prej banesave ka kaluar në emrin e djalit të Hrytsakut, Ihorit.
Gruaja e Hrytsakut dhe djali tjetër, janë bashkëpronarë të banesës së dytë.
Të dyja banesat janë të lëshuara me qira, prej të cilave familja përfiton më shumë se 370.000 dollarë, sipas të dhënave të hulumtimit.
Në kërkesën për koment, Hrytsak ka thënë se po “dëgjon për herë të parë” që ka prona në Dubai.
Prokurorët dhe gjyqtarët
Ish-shërbyesit civilë në sistemin gjyqësor të Ukrainës kanë blerë, gjithashtu, dhjetëra prona, tregojnë gjetjet e hulumtimit “Të fshehtat e Dubait”.
Aty përfshihet Oleh Kornilov, ish-zëvendësprokuror në rajonin jugor të Odesas, i cili ka blerë banesë në vlerë të 90.000 dollarëve në brigjet Jumeirah – ku gjenden liqene artificiale dhe plazhe – në dimrin e vitit 2011-12, kur ka qenë zëvendësprokuror në Odesa.
Kornilov është bërë më vonë zëvendësshef i Departamentit të hetimeve në Zyrën e Prokurorit rajonal dhe më pas shef i njësitit.
Pas shkarkimit më 2014, në periudhën e ikjes së Yanukovychit në Rusi, Kornilov është përfshirë në një betejë të gjatë për të mbajtur pozitën që ka pasur.
Ai ka vazhduar të blejë prona në Dubai, sipas dokumentacionit, duke zotëruar edhe një apartament në një hotel, në një pjesë elitë të Emirateve, për 210.000 dollarë, më 2016.
None of these properties - two of which have already been sold - were not declared by Kornilov himself, nor were they mentioned in the asset declarations by his wife, who until 2014 was also a prosecutor in the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Odesa.
Contacted by phone, Kornilov denied having an apartment in Dubai.
When he was told that his name was on the list of the United Arab Emirates authorities, he hung up and did not answer further calls.
The wife of Artur Yemelyanov, an influential judge under Yanukovych, has also been named as the owner of three apartments in an elite area of Dubai, Dubai Marina, which cost $1.8 million, research data show.
Svitlana Yemelyanova served as a deputy in the Council of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk until 2014.
In December of that year, she bought the first apartment - of three in total - worth 650,000 dollars.
Yemelyanova and her husband, who has faced suspicions that he may have been involved in the automated distribution of cases among Ukrainian judges, divorced in 2014, and the ex-judge's wife subsequently bought him two more apartments, in 2017 and 2018 for $620,000 and $560,000, respectively.
Preliminary research by the REL team, Schemat, has found evidence that Yemelyanov and his ex-wife continued to vacation, and spent time together in Vienna, where she lives with the children.
Yemelyanov declined to comment on the properties in Dubai, saying his ex-wife bought the properties.
"Svitlana and I continue to communicate. We are civilized people and divorce is not a factor that prevents us from communicating", he said.
Speaking about Schemes, Yemelyanov said that neither he nor his ex-wife are involved in criminal cases, which he considered "unfounded".
However, he said that the authorities raided his and his ex-wife's properties on another occasion.
Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation has told Schemes that as of May 2024, neither Yemelyanov nor his wife have been notified of any suspicion of any criminal case.
Svitlana Yemelyanova has not responded to requests to comment about the properties in Dubai./REL
Lini një Përgjigje