Artem Shilo
In an investigation for Bihus.info, Lesya Ivanova revealed the scandalous background of Artem Shylo, who was appointed Deputy Head of the SBU's Department for the Protection of National Statehood in August 2022, Nashi Dengi reports.
Previously, Shylo was accused of ties to the Russian gambling business, but last year he was dubbed Yermak's "overseer" of Ukrzaliznytsia. Now, he's being called Tatarov's "personnel" in the SBU. Three months ago, he took charge of one of the Security Service's most important units today. This unit, whose responsibilities include drafting sanctions lists and eliminating Russian influence in strategic sectors of the Ukrainian economy, including the critically important energy sector.
Shilo came to this responsible position with a pile of elite property, which is worth more than the entire income of the Chekist and his family.
Artem Viktorovich Shilo, 32, is originally from Kharkiv. His father is a retired police officer. His mother, now deceased, was the former head of the criminal justice department at Yaroslav Mudryi Kharkiv University. She served on the editorial board of the journal "Bulletin of Criminal Procedure" along with Oleg Tatarov, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office. Artem graduated from his mother's university, Kharkiv Law School.
Since 2012, he has served in the SBU, first in his native Kharkiv, and since 2016, in Kyiv, at the State Cybercrime Bureau. This is the SBU department tasked with combating cybercrime, but in those years, the news was mostly filled with stories about the terrorization of businesses, not just IT, but any business that could be linked to Russian cybercrime. Just look at one of the then-heads of the State Cybercrime Bureau, Klimchuk—he himself was involved in a criminal case involving a demand for a bribe to close the case.
In this position, Shilo rose to the rank of deputy head of the department and even to the early rank of lieutenant colonel, but in the summer of 2021, he was expelled from the SBU as part of a major purge.
For the next year, I either did nothing and rested, or helped the authorities reform the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) as an adviser to the Presidential Office, or ran a fantastically successful business.
In August of this year, Artem Shylo returned to the security services to head a new unit of the SBU—the Main Directorate for Counterintelligence Protection of Critical Infrastructure Facilities and Countering the Financing of Terrorism, or Main Directorate "I" for short.
All these years, Artem Shilo remained very private.
Shilo himself dismisses rumors that he received the position as "Tatarov's man." He even insists he never planned to return to the Security Service. But one day, the head of the Service, Vasily Malyuk, "urgently offered him the job," and he simply "couldn't say no." As a reminder, Malyuk and Artem Shilo attended Tatarov's birthday party together.
Shilo (pictured left) and Malysh (right) at Tatarov's birthday party
Properties related to Shiloh:
- Shilo himself owns two three-room apartments in the elite Novopecherskie Lipki residential complex; their market value is approximately $700.
- Here in Lipki, the wife owns another two-room apartment and 360 square meters of commercial real estate, amounting to more than $2 million.
- Shilo's wife also owns a total of 275 square meters in a residential building in central Kyiv, where she runs a beauty salon. The market value of the property is another $1 million.
- Shilo's wife also owns two Mercedes-Benzes and a Toyota Camry. Together, these could have cost $238.
- a house near Kyiv, registered to Shilo's father.
In an interview with Bigus.info, Artem Shilo insisted that the apartment registered to his wife was his mother-in-law's, while his father's house was truly his father's. He claimed he made his money in construction and real estate sales. However, his father's business is not listed in the registers because it was allegedly small and he allegedly didn't consider it worthwhile to register it.
Shilo Sr. worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs until the mid-2000s, then briefly in a municipal security company with a low salary, then officially unemployed for several years. Until his father started acquiring real estate in late 2016, when Shilo Jr. moved to Kyiv. First, office space in Kharkiv, then two townhouses for $150 locally, and then, after selling the townhouses, a farmstead near Kyiv, where Shilo Jr. had by then moved. He now insists he has no regard for any of this.
In May 2022, as soon as Russian troops withdrew from Kyiv, Shylo Jr. registered two large apartments in Lypky in his name. The developer is currently selling them for $360 each. But Artem Shylo insists he bought them several times cheaper because prices dropped due to the war.
But where did that kind of money come from? After leaving the SBU, Shylo registered a sole proprietorship and a law firm, but according to him, it never received a single contract. Artem Shylo won't say where he earned the money.
Shilo's wife, Irina, is listed as the owner of the rest of the family's property. As is often the case in the families of law enforcement officers with modest salaries, Shilo's wife is a successful and wealthy businesswoman, the founder of a chain of salons and several other businesses. However, Shilo's wife became successful and wealthy after marrying Shilo.
Shilo advised journalists to look at his wife's declaration, as if everything was written down there. However, if you add up everything reflected in Irina's declarations for almost 10 years, it would amount to around a million dollars. But, firstly, that doesn't even cover half of everything registered in her name (the commercial real estate in Lipki alone is worth two million), and secondly, how that million came to be is a separate and rather amusing story.
Irina's main business brainchild is a chain of beauty salons under the brand "365".
"The first studio was located in a small, ugly shopping center on Kyiv's left bank. A 7-square-meter stand, 20 varnishes. Professionals refused to work due to a lack of clients and materials."
In one interview, Irina said that when she moved to Kharkov, got married, and had a child, “ the business began to fade away . ”
But here's the paradox. Just when Irina married an SBU officer and went on maternity leave, and her business was "fading away," the number of zeros in her bank accounts suddenly began to skyrocket. Irina became the owner of a share in the business, millions began to flow through her sole proprietorship, Irina's assets gradually grew, and her Instagram account became filled with photo reports from various islands.
2015. Irina marries SBU officer Shilo. A photo album shows a wedding in the Dominican Republic, and a new Lexus worth around $50 appears in the garage.
There's a million in the half-dead sole proprietorship accounts, and the registry lists a business deal with the wife of another SBU officer, Shilo's boss, Eduard Kritsyn.
It was Kritsin who would become one of the reasons why Shila would be called the "railroad overseer"—after all, after his dismissal from the Security Service, Kritsin was appointed director of economic and information security at UZ.
But that wouldn't be until 2021. Back then, in 2015, Kritsin was working for the SBU, heading the cyber department. He took over that position in the fall, and immediately, Kritsin's wives and Artem Shilo found jobs at the firm "Alfa-Omega Accounting Center," which provides legal and accounting services, including IT, which was precisely what Kritsin-Shilo's department oversaw. During the six years that Irina was one of the owners of this firm, she received over 5 million hryvnias in dividends.
2016. There's no word yet on resuming the business, but her sole proprietorship account still has a million rubles. Her Instagram feed features Cuba and Mexico. And yet, Irina is on maternity leave, and Shilo is in the SBU.
2017 — Irina is still only planning to return to business; her first small studio will only launch in test mode at the end of October. But through Irina's sole proprietorship, they're once again making a million. On Instagram, Israel and Türkiye.
A few years later, Irina actually set up salons. Incidentally, this was an investment first, meaning expenses, and only then income. But it seems no expense is a problem for her; the salons are growing like mushrooms. And then a new period begins: even when she complains about problems and losses in business, her sole proprietorship is still brimming with cash, and her Instagram is filled with photos of her vacations around the world.
2018 — Irina opened another studio at Zhulyany Airport. It didn't last long—it was closed due to a lack of clients. Meanwhile, her bank accounts had gained a million and a half, and her Instagram account was full of Bali.
And somewhere else, there's money—for a designer renovation and the fitting out of a fully-fledged, large salon on the Left Bank. And immediately—for another studio in the cottage town of Zoloche, where the house is registered to Shilo's father.
2019 — On Instagram, Irina complains about a bad year: "I didn't get the moral and material rewards I deserved from my favorite activity."
But if there's no return on investment, who financed the massive, year-long construction of yet another salon: a flagship, two-story building in the center of Kyiv? A custom project from a top-tier design firm, everything expensive, lavish, and super-ecological—right down to the sofa, which was imported from Bali.
2020, when everyone, especially the service industry, was devastated by the Kievod. On Instagram, Irina wrings her hands:
"365studio is going through a tough time."
“We suffered, like everyone else, major losses, and we can’t plan for growth, let alone staying afloat.”
Meanwhile, another 6,5 million rubles are being processed through her sole proprietorship. A new Toyota Camry appears in the garage, and in the photo album—I've lost count of how many times—Türkiye and a week-long vacation, probably in Mexico.
2021 – Artem Shilo's wife no longer complains, simply adding a new Mercedes (currently worth around $85) and flying to the Seychelles. For their anniversary, they're off to Paris, and to close out the season in Saint-Tropez. Two weeks with the whole family at a hotel, which Irina, for such a large number of guests, is offering us on Booking.com for almost 2,5 million hryvnias.
Last year, a new apartment opened in Instin. It was rented out for 180 hryvnias per month.
In November 2021, she bought her first block of commercial real estate in Lipki (approximately $1,8 million), and a few months later, a second one on Tarasovskaya (and this could have been another million dollars or so).
This year, Irina is embarking on another construction project—her largest salon yet—this time a three-story one, in the Oresidence residential complex on Oblon. This construction project won't be stopped even by war. And this despite the fact that, according to Sheila herself, her business is barely surviving—only two salons are operating, and even those are operating at 20% capacity.
Journalists discovered another space downtown (a basement in a business center), next to the main salon, where Irina had set up not only an office but also a mini-salon/bunker, so that the bombings wouldn't interfere with her beauty routine. At the same address, they also found a company called "365 Acts" LLC, which deals in real estate and has a charter capital of nearly 23 million rubles. However, the company is registered not to Irina, but to a certain Violeta Bankovskaya. She is Irina's HR manager and something like her personal assistant.
And then one day, Irina decided the salon should have a bar. And so, a company called "365 Bar" appeared in the state registry, registered to someone named Alexander Skuratov. The tags his number appears in various phone books will best explain Skuratov's identity:
Sasha, Artem's driver
"Alexander drives Artem's awl"
Sasha Skuratov Topics
Sanya Kyiv SBU
Skuratov, who previously had a rather dismal official income, was later issued:
- a 190 sq m house near Kyiv (these were sold for $200 thousand);
- the AUDI S6 that Shilo drove (it now costs $60);
- A Mercedes GLE 63 (costing $125), the records will be kept by Shilo's wife, and the car will eventually be transferred directly to Irina.
In addition, this year Skuratov was hired by Ukrzaliznytsia, where Kritsyn works.
Currently, the Main Directorate "I" is tasked with protecting critical infrastructure facilities, including electricity, water, transportation, communications, healthcare, and access to food. Today, the SBU's tasks include not only catching saboteurs at these facilities but also denying enemies and traitors acting in the interests of the Russian Federation influence over these sectors.
Moreover, although this isn't the SBU's arrival, in response to widespread public demand, Shilo has taken on the task of de-Russifying the gaming market. And not just revoking licenses for Russian-controlled companies, but slamming software platforms with sanctions to cut off Russians' access to the Ukrainian market.
Specifically, this concerns 1xBet. Artem Shylo is accused of being involved with the most controversial player on the market today.
1xBet is one of the most famous online bookmakers in the world. This business was founded by three Russians and operated illegally within the Russian Federation, without a license or taxes, which resulted in a criminal case, asset seizures, and the founders being placed on the wanted list. The founders successfully acclimated to Cyprus, and their brainchild continued to operate.
In early April, just after the Russian army was driven out of Kyiv, 1xBet received an official license. This led to a major scandal. Members of parliament are beginning to investigate the fact that the license was not issued to 1xBet itself, but to a Ukrainian LLC acting as a representative of the brand. This is despite the fact that the law states that a license cannot be issued to a company owned or controlled by Russians.
It turns out that no one is checking the long list of restrictions under the law because the procedure for checking them has never been approved.
In search of an answer to the question—chaos or conspiracy—journalists and activists began to consider options: who helped the "X" enter the Ukrainian market.
The first person to point the finger was Boris Baum , then chairman of the KRAIL advisory and expert council. Formerly a top manager with ties to Russians at VS Energy, he had officially transformed himself into an advisor to Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Kirill Tymoshenko, but unofficially, he became the gambling kingpin. When the scandal erupted, Baum was fired, but for some reason, no one was in a hurry to revoke his license.
So, inquisitive Ukrainians dug deeper and found the TECHIIA holding and Shilo.
The Ukrainian company TBK LLC officially received two licenses to operate under the 1xBet brand.
Its owner is listed as Sergei Tsybin, a former banker—so former that other banks are now suing him for defaulting on standard card loans. The company's charter capital is 30 million rubles, the cost of one license is 25 million rubles, and the second one is 117 million rubles.
It also turned out that Tsybin previously owned the company "Me-Estate," whose director was Yuriy Lazebnikov, managing partner of the Ukrainian IT and esports holding "TECHIIA." Last year, the holding officially announced a partnership and joint project with 1xBet, even naming the "X" team as partners for 2021. At "Techeniya," Roman Rodin, whose brother Alexander manages TBK, the very same company that obtained licenses for 1xBet in Ukraine, serves as the chief legal officer.
TECHIIA's second managing partner is Oleg Krot. He admits to knowing the founders of 1xBet and did have a project with the "X" last year, but insists that it lasted no longer than a month. At the same time, Krot has no general objections to 1xBet operating in Ukraine. Rather, he considers the issue debatable and leans toward a pragmatic approach: it would be good if taxes were sent to Ukraine.
After another wave of scandal, the license was eventually revoked—but the company is suing to have it renewed.
Artem Shilo. Connections
As for Shilo, InformNapalm referred to him as 1xBet's "patron," but only in passing, without providing any details. It later emerged that Artem Shilo registered his law firm at the address of a law firm whose partners, according to Napalm, handled TBC's licensing process and later defended the company in court.
Furthermore, Bihus.info journalists discovered that among TECHIIA's major projects, listed on the holding's website, is a large-scale eco-technopark. The founders of Dinaline, the company that was supposed to implement it, included the aforementioned Krot and Sergei Titov, Shilo's godfather. The SBU officer's godfather is supposed to handle bureaucratic red tape and land registration.
Shilo himself now pretends that he barely remembers who baptized his child and what he did.
"But it appears that the godfather, like the driver, was 'integrated' into a specific business system. Besides Dynaline, Titov owned stakes in two other companies together with the wife of Shilo's boss, Klimchuk. Three years ago, that is, after they, according to Shilo, had stopped communicating, they were transferred from Titov to 'Sasha, Artem's driver,' Skuratov. And even later, Titov's fate at Dynaline was also transferred to Yevgeny Lyashchenko, who would later be appointed a member of the board of Ukrzaliznytsia," the journalists reported.
Skelet.Org
On the topic : Shilo Tatarova in the SBU
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