Just 23 kilometers, or an 11-minute train ride, separates Strasbourg from the small commune of La Wantzenau, where 43-year-old Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka owns his French property. To be precise, the 145-square-meter house was purchased just over three years ago, and its owner is 40-year-old Olesya Bartovshchuk, the official's wife.
"Strana" found this cottage where the family of the head of the GPU lives.
As I exit La Wantzenau train station, an eerie silence strikes my ears. The streets are deserted, geese cawing in the distance, and the bell of the Parish Church of St. Wendelin, the patron saint of shepherds, rings several times an hour.
The commune of La Wantzenau is located in northeastern France in the Grand Est region. It covers an area of 25,39 square kilometers and has a population of approximately 6000. In Ukraine, it would be called an "urban-type settlement," with several kindergartens, a school, a supermarket, and a village council (in La Wantzenau, this is the town hall).
The locals' lives in this town are reminiscent of the cult TV series "Desperate Housewives." They work and pursue higher education in big cities, particularly in Starsbourg, but here in La Wantzenau, they live a quiet, family-like life within their own fenced-in garden.
Once a month, there are traditional village fairs, seasonal marathons, fishing and hunting with neighbors on weekends, golf (La Wantzenau has a huge course for this sport), grilled meats, or tarte flambée. In the courtyards of several houses, we saw special outdoor ovens for cooking tarte flambée—a kind of pizza where a thin layer of dough is topped with a creamy sauce, lots of onions, and bacon.
The people of La Vanzaine are extremely proud of the Relais De La Poste, which has been included in the Michelin Red Guide—the most influential and renowned restaurant rating system of our time. It does, however, have one Michelin star, which means it's worth a visit if you happen to come across it.
People come here specifically to try the crispy pigeon from Kieffer Farm for €38 or the multi-ingredient dish (chicken, veal cutlets, potatoes) based on a recipe by the famous composer Gioachino Rossini for €38. There's also a five-course "chef-inspired" menu for €86.
La Wantzenau is also home to the popular private museum MM PARK FRANCE, owned by Eric Kaufman. Its collection contains numerous rare armored vehicles, including those still in need of restoration. These include two examples of the French ARL 44 tank.
There are no street parties here, and after sunset the city falls asleep and only the bell of St. Wendelin's Church rings.
Finding Ms. Bartovshchuk's house turned out to be easy. Strana learned from the public register of property owners in France that the cottage is located on Rue des Jardins, so we headed there.
One could call this street quiet, but there are no loud streets in this town. Except perhaps in the mornings, when the children go to kindergarten or the college named after the French writer André Malraux, located near the Prosecutor General's house. It's worth noting that the Prosecutor General's wife lives in France with her three sons: Timur, Luka, and Mark, who were born here and are citizens of that country.
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The home of the Ukrainian official's family doesn't stand out from the others in La Wantzenau. It's located behind a low fence and painted pale yellow. According to Ruslan Ryaboshapka's 2018 asset declaration on the NACP (National Agency on Corruption Prevention) website, the building sits on a plot of land measuring just over 4 square meters.
The house has two floors, a garage, and beautifully landscaped grounds. Several coniferous trees grow near the entrance, and the courtyard itself is located behind the mansion.
And while in the village of Kozin (Kiev region) every dog knows where the property of the main radical Oleh Lyashko or former President Petro Poroshenko is located, in the French city of La Wantzenau, talking about "vie privée" (French for "private and personal life") is unacceptable.
They don't say anything bad about "Madame Olesya," nor anything good. They've never heard of her being the wife of one of Ukraine's key officials.
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The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's family's choice of residence was no accident. Olesya Bartovshchuk works in Strasbourg, at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Before moving to France, she worked at the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. She was the head of the civil and commercial litigation department at the National Bureau for Compliance with the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
It was this profile of work that eventually allowed her to continue her career at the ECHR.
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According to the Court's website, the Prosecutor General's wife's job title is "Agent, Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court, Directorate of Monitorings," which can be translated as an agent for the enforcement department of the Monitoring Department. In other words, she's a simple clerk.
In December 2016, Ryaboshapka's wife purchased the house for UAH 12,392 million, which at the euro exchange rate at the time was €444,000.
That is, almost half a million euros.
About two weeks ago, the Prosecutor General told Ukrinform reporters on the sidelines of parliament that he had taken out a loan to purchase the property: "We haven't yet managed to repay such a large sum. And this situation is actually being manipulated, because we still owe over four hundred thousand euros on this loan. And we continue to make monthly payments. The loan hasn't been repaid."
"Strana" visited a real estate agency in La Wantzenau to find out how much houses and land in the area are selling for.
The prices are truly impressive.
Several properties are currently on sale. For example, a 120-square-meter house on a 600-square-meter plot is asking €313,000, while a modern, 187-square-meter high-tech cottage near a golf course with a swimming pool and a 1000-square-meter plot is asking €868,000.
What about the loan for the house in La Wantzenau?
According to the declaration, the future Prosecutor General's wife did indeed have to take out two large loans in 2016 to purchase a house, totaling €510,000 and €81,000. These loans were reflected in the financial statements for the year when Ruslan Ryaboshapka was still a member of the NACP.
The Prosecutor General's wife took out loans from the local branch of Caisse de Credit Mutuel, which is not a bank in the classic sense, but a cooperative bank – something like our credit unions.
Ms. Bartovshchuk's debts to this bank steadily grew. Her 2015 declaration indicates that she began receiving loans in 2012, initially for €49,000. Then, in 2013, the wife of the current Prosecutor General took out €11,900, and in 2014, another €21,000.
In 2017, a new loan, this time for €15,000, was issued in Ruslan Ryaboshapka's wife's name. On the day she received it, she immediately repaid over €1800 in other loans and interest from the same bank.
As a result, the Prosecutor General's wife accumulated a total of over €600,000 in loans. This is despite her salary being approximately €10,000 per month (based on the amount stated in Ryaboshapka's declaration).
But this is an accrued amount, and France has a very high personal income tax. The tax on such a salary can amount to more than half the accrued amount (although each case varies). That means that out of the accrued 10, you might only end up with about €4,5-6.
Ruslan Ryaboshapka himself did not receive any salary in 2018. He only reported one-time fees totaling 776 hryvnias, which he received over the year from several foreign sources—the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, and USAID's Support to Anti-Corruption Organizations (SACCI) project.
This means that repaying such a massive loan would have been quite problematic for the Prosecutor General's family, unless they had other income not disclosed in their declaration.
What other real estate does Ryaboshapka own?
Strana's sources in the Prosecutor General's Office reported that on February 17, Ryaboshapka informed his inner circle of employees that he and all his deputies would soon resign. However, the Office quickly denied this information.
The Prosecutor General has recently faced a number of complaints regarding his work.
But that's not all. There are also questions about his declaration.
Since 2015, Ruslan Ryaboshapka has consistently declared that his wife owns half of a plot of land with a house in the village of Novi Petrivtsi (Vyshgorod district, Kyiv region). For example, in his most recent declaration, he indicated that Olesya Bartovshchuk owns 50% of a 150-square-meter apartment and half of a 318-square-meter plot of land in Novi Petrivtsi.
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However, the problem is that the real estate registry extract obtained by Strana contains completely different information. The plot's area is not 318 square meters, as declared by the Prosecutor General, but 0,318 hectares.
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Consequently, the area of the Prosecutor General's wife's plot is not 318, but 3180 square meters, that is, exactly ten times more than the Prosecutor General declared.
Interestingly, the land registry does not list the parcel with the number indicated in the real estate register. This means that not only did the Prosecutor General "make a mistake" regarding the parcel's size, but the land registry documents were also improperly executed.
It's worth noting that the Prosecutor General registered the other half of the house and land in Novi Petrivtsi in the name of his mother, Zinaida Ryaboshapka. According to her Facebook page, she also lives near her daughter-in-law and her grandchildren in Strasbourg.
Olesya Bartovshchuk's parents are the founders of a network marketing pyramid.
As Strana has learned, the parents of the Prosecutor General's wife have held high positions in the Amway network marketing company for many years.
Back in 2008, in the magazine of the Ukrainian branch of this international network pyramid, Lyudmila and Andrey Bartovshchuk were listed as “platinum NPA founders of the business.
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Lyudmila and Andrey Bartovshchuk, photo: amwaywiki.com
And now, 12 years later, the head of the Prosecutor General's Office's father-in-law regularly posts photos from events of this network on his Facebook page, where he encourages new members to join.
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Who is Ruslan Ryaboshapka?
Ruslan Ryaboshapka is a career official at the Ministry of Justice, where he worked intermittently for over 12 years. There, he rose from a senior specialist to the head of the Department of Justice, Law Enforcement, and Anti-Corruption Policy.
In 2010, Viktor Yushchenko awarded the future Prosecutor General the title of "Honored Lawyer of Ukraine." He then headed the Bureau for Anti-Corruption Policy of the Cabinet of Ministers Secretariat in the government of Mykola Azarov.
Ruslan Ryaboshapka briefly worked in the Ukrainian office of the grant organization Transparency International in late 2013. Then, after the Maidan revolution in 2014, he became Deputy Minister of Justice, but resigned in October of that year due to a conflict with Minister Pavlo Petrenko.
In March 2016, Ruslan Ryaboshapka became a member of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention. However, in June 2017, he resigned again and left amid a major scandal. Ruslan accused the agency's head, Natalia Korchak, of ineffective work, unwillingness to address the agency's problems, and delays in reviewing the electronic declarations of Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and other ministers.
According to Strana, Ryaboshapka joined Zelenskyy's team on the recommendation of Andriy Bohdan, whose law firm he had worked with for a long time. Bohdan, as is known, was recently dismissed as head of the Presidential Office.
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