Case description
Former President Viktor Yanukovych who fled Ukraine and his son Oleksandr are accused of illegally seizing the Mezhyhiria residence. The amount of material damage is estimated at over UAH 540 million.
The story of Mezhyhiria dates back to 2002, when Yanukovych Sr. was Prime Minister and lived in one of the buildings of the residence, and the entire Mezhyhiria complex was managed by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Then Yanukovych changed the statuses of all facilities in the complex to remove the assets from the restrictions of the privatization legislation. Later, a separate legal entity was established, which included all facilities that appealed to the then Prime Minister.
In 2005, the complex was returned to the State Management of Affairs (SMA), and all Mezhyhiria property was merged again. But in 2007, Viktor Yanukovych sent a letter to President Yushchenko asking him to exchange the property of the Pushcha-Vodytsia Recreation Complex (which included assets in Mezhyhiria) for the premises of a private company in Donetsk.
On Viktor Yanukovych's birthday in 2007, Yushchenko allegedly issued a secret order to provide him with a country house in Mezhyhiria. The status of the state villa was removed from all facilities of the residence, and Yanukovych transferred the assets to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources. A month later, Nadra Ukrayny, headed by Eduard Stavytskyi, became the asset manager.
Meanwhile, Yanukovych's son Oleksandr engaged a former bodyguard as a Director of Medinvesttrade LLC (the very company in Donetsk), and in August 2007, Lytovchenko (from Yanukovych's entourage) was offered the position of Co-founder and Director of Tantalit LLC, which was to acquire the property of the Mezhyhiria residence.
In the same year, Eduard Stavytskyi, Chairman of the Management Board of NJSC Nadra Ukrayny, initiated consideration of the exchange of the complex's property for non-residential buildings of Medinvesttrade.
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In order to make the property exchange, the value of the Mezhyhiria complex was reduced artificially, while the property of a private company, on the contrary, was valued at three times the market value—up to UAH 93 million. In September 2007, the Cabinet of Ministers officially completed the exchange process by a decree, and Mezhyhiria came under the control of the Yanukovych's family. Later, the property was taken over by Tantalit LLC.
In 2013, Serhii Kliuyev got ownership over the property as the owner of a share in Tantalit LLC at a price that was several times lower than the actual price. Viktor Yanukovych is also suspected of receiving tens of millions of hryvnias in bribes from Kliuyev, the money was used to pay for expenses related to Yanukovych's residence and to obtain Yanukovych's right to use buildings and land plots for free.
Today, Mezhyhiria has the status of a park-monument of landscape art of national importance and is state-owned. All proceeds from the park go to the national budget.
Viktor Yanukovych's actions were classified under Article 191(5), Article 209(3), Article 368(5) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The former president's son was charged with Article 191(5), Article 209(3) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. They are being investigated in absentia, and in 2022, the NABU sent them subpoenas. Yanukovych and his son's places of residence were listed as the Russian cities of Rostov and St. Petersburg, respectively.
Except for the Yanukovych's family, other parties to the case are:
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Eduard Stavytskyi, former Chairman of the Management Board of Nadra Ukrayny,
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Ihor Tarasiuk, former Head of the State Administration of Affairs,
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Viktor Yushchenko, former President of Ukraine,
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Serhii Kliuiev, former MP and former owner of Tantalit,
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Pavlo Lytovchenko, former Director of Tantalit,
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Private Notary Yuliia Tkachenko,
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Hennadii Herasymenko, Director of MEDINVESTTRADE LLC.
