Following a recent purge of the regional prosecutor's office, new deputy prosecutors for the Odessa region have been appointed. The vacant positions have been filled by "old hands" implicated in many high-profile cases of the past.
Shortly after the final surge of the first wave of lustration, Odesa Oblast Prosecutor Andriy Priz introduced four new deputies to the public. At the end of October, Serhiy Kostenko, Pavlo Zakernychny, and Vitaliy Etnarovich received their new positions. A little later, Tatyana Gornostaeva, the daughter of Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin, became Priz's new deputy. While the situation with Gornostaeva is fairly clear, the appointment of Etnarovich and Kostenko, who gained some of their experience and wealth during the "criminal regime," raises many questions among the public, OTKAT reports.
Let's take a quick look at the careers of several senior justice advisers who were appointed during the latest October appointments.
Sergey Kostenko
Let's start with Serhiy Kostenko, who recently made headlines with a luxury real estate scandal. An Odesa journalist posted photos online of a luxurious mansion allegedly belonging to the Kyivskyi District Prosecutor of Odesa. The discrepancy between his position and income surprised even seasoned journalists and colleagues. Later, the prosecutor's office issued a statement denying that the mansion belonged to Kostenko.
Contrary to journalists' predictions, after a visit to Odessa by the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine's audit commission, the district prosecutor not only retained his position but was even promoted.
The 37-year-old prosecutor began his career as an assistant in the Suvorovsky District Prosecutor's Office. He also worked in the Artsyz District Prosecutor's Office in the Odessa region, his native city. Later, Kostenko headed the Kiliya District Prosecutor's Office, served for a long time as Deputy Prosecutor of the Odessa Region, and then as Deputy Prosecutor of the Primorsky District Prosecutor's Office. It was as Deputy City Prosecutor in 2008 that Kostenko became involved in the corporate raiding scandal surrounding the infamous Yunost Hotel.
Following a search and subsequent lockdown of the hotel, carried out by the prosecutor's office under the patronage, as the media reported, of President Yushchenko himself, on March 31, 2008, Kostenko arrived at Yunost with his own decision in hand, according to which the building was designated as material evidence, and asked everyone to leave the premises.
At the time, journalists attributed the Yunost problems to a Kyiv dollar multimillionaire mired in criminal scandals, "Slava Landcruiser" (real name Mstislav Skorobogatov), who earned the nickname for an incident involving his SUV and a security SUV attacking the small car of Vasyutich, a member of Cell LLC. The woman managed to evade pursuit by two large foreign cars, which attempted to ram the small Volkswagen into a ditch. The incident was also caused by a hotel, but in the capital. Skorobogatov's name, in addition to Forbes magazine, appears in various capacities in many criminal cases (including murder).
Vitaly Etnarovich
Vitaly Etnarovich's role as the region's first deputy prosecutor raises even more questions. The prosecutor not only held on to his position under the new administration, but also successfully integrated into the new team, occupying a key position in the regional agency.
Compared to other heads of the regional prosecutor's office, 46-year-old Etnarovich is a veteran, both literally and figuratively. Among Priz's deputies, only Pavlo Zakernychny, a year older than him, is older. However, Etnarovich began his career in the legal profession quite late, graduating from the Odesa State Law Academy at age 32. However, he started from a very successful position.
After a couple of years of training as an assistant prosecutor in Odessa's Central District, Etnarovich began working in the regional prosecutor's office in 2001, replacing successive heads of various departments within the agency. During the "criminal regime," he successfully served as a prosecutor overseeing law enforcement in the region's transportation sector, later heading the human resources department.
Amid the public lustration frenzy, the relationship between the newly appointed first deputy of the "cleaned" prosecutor's office and one of the leading representatives of the Party of Regions (PR) at the city council level seems quite odd. Oleh Etnarovich (the prosecutor's younger brother) is still a city council member, heading the standing committee on education, culture, sports, and interaction with public organizations. He left the PR party during the mass exodus of 40 Odesa regionals on October 29th. Along with everyone else, he immediately joined the newly formed "Trust Deeds" parliamentary group, becoming deputy chairman. Previously, he held a similar position in the PR faction on the Odesa City Council. He is president of the Credo-1963 rugby club (his brother, the prosecutor, is the club's vice president) and a master of sports in rugby. He is also president of the Rugby Federation of the Odesa Oblast and first vice president of the national federation. Before entering politics, he worked in commerce and was a shuttle trader for the 7th Kilometer. He currently heads the company, Academy of Sports LLC.
The older brother, a prosecutor, according to media reports, owns gambling and drinking establishments in Odessa. He is also said to be a partner of Eduard Malyutin. The latter, according to media reports (a native of the aforementioned wholesale industrial market), without the relevant education, joined the tax authorities, where he became a key player in the construction of extortion and extortion schemes. Having earned a reputation as a highly controversial tax official, Malyutin continued his career, enjoying high-level protection, including within the prosecutor's office. Among the named prosecutor-partners, the name of the now-purged Vladislav Finik and, indeed, Etnarovich, appears. Allegedly, the relationship between Malyutin and the prosecutor is so warm that the former's wife even drove the prosecutor's wife's car.
The second wave of lustration is expected to affect other agencies, from whose ranks it is planned to expel anyone who aided the functioning of the "criminal regime." For now, the new "old" regional prosecutors can settle into their new positions. However, the public and experts are already raising numerous questions and concerns about the "Law on the Purification of Power" and the principles of its implementation.
For now, the Prosecutor's Truth has the following questions:
— How much did Sergei Kostenko pay in "taxes from his position" to the Prosecutor General's Office so he could continue doing business without any problems?
— Would Tatyana Gornostaeva have been hired by the Odessa Regional Prosecutor's Office if she hadn't been the daughter of Yarema's deputy, Viktor Shokin?
— What other personnel “prizes” is Odesa regional prosecutor Andrey Priz preparing for residents?
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