The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office is a hub for owners of luxury cars and yachts, husbands of wealthy women, and relatives of influential people. Here, a retired regional prosecutor owns a car worth 1 million hryvnias, and his first deputy plies the justice system on an old yacht; until recently, Viktor Pshonka's nephew, Dmytro Kavun, worked here. But despite the prestigious connections, fancy cars, and luxury homes, here, as in other regional prosecutor's offices, people live on a single salary.
The old sea dog is back in action
The current Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor, Yuriy Danilchenko, began his career as a senior assistant to the Mykolaiv city prosecutor, where he later served as prosecutor of the Leninsky and Centralny districts. Under Kuchma, Danilchenko served as prosecutor of the Kirovohrad region, but in 2004, Prosecutor General Gennady Vasyliev appointed him prosecutor of the Mykolaiv region.
A year after Viktor Yushchenko came to power, a number of criminal cases were opened against Danilchenko related to political events during the Orange Revolution and electoral irregularities. As a result, Danilchenko was removed from his post.
An interesting fact about Yuriy Danilchenko's biography is that after being "dismissed" from the prosecutor's office, he, as they say, kept his cool and found a job at Nadra Bank, owned by oligarch Dmitry Firtash. The former prosecutor then worked for a time as the CEO of the security company USS Security.
However, in 2012, he suddenly became a trusted person for the candidate for People's Deputy of Ukraine in the 2012 parliamentary elections, Vladimir Tymoshyn, in the 127th single-mandate electoral district.
Before assuming the post of captain of the vessel known as the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office, Danilchenko spent all of 2013 sitting at home (apparently, they couldn't reach an agreement right away, although he retained connections in the Prosecutor General's Office). Since May of this year, he has been appointed deputy head of the Main Directorate for the Protection of Citizens' Rights and Freedoms, State Interests, and Supervision of Law Enforcement by Special Forces and Other Agencies Combating Organized Crime and Corruption—head of the Prosecutor General's Office's Directorate for the Protection of Citizens' Rights and Freedoms and State Interests.
Well, from this position Danilchenko was transferred to Kharkov at the end of August.
Last year, the prosecutor lived off his pension, which is not small—a whopping 205 hryvnias a year! His wife, who is a burden on the prosecutor, also lived on the same pension. Yuriy Danilchenko owns a 158,5-square-meter apartment and a 2010 Audi A8. A used car like this in good condition is currently worth over a million hryvnias, which is quite a bit for a pensioner. The prosecutor's wife, however, has neither a car nor a square meter of her own, even in a communal apartment.
That is, the prosecutor’s previous jobs did not provide anything like that.
The brave assistant Lom and a crew of sailors in the service of the captain
The dashing captain of the prosecutor's vessel, Danilchenko, has a loyal assistant, Lom—First Deputy Valery Romanov. Romanov arrived in Kharkiv in transit directly from the Prosecutor General's Office.
Last year, Romanov earned a considerable sum – 433 hryvnias, of which 270 hryvnias was his salary, and the rest was other income. Meanwhile, the prosecutor's wife and son earned only 192 hryvnias in salary between them. The prosecutor owns two plots of land, measuring 400 and 1200 square meters, respectively. His family also owns a plot of 1500 square meters.
The prosecutor's couple doesn't own apartments or houses, so the Romanov family lives on one of the plots of land, either in a shack or in one of the cars. The prosecutor owns a 2007 Suzuki Grand Vitara (used, worth about 200 UAH), a 2008 Hyundai H100 truck (used, worth about 230 UAH), and 25% of a 1980 sailing yacht. The prosecutor's family owns a 2001 Toyota Yaris (used, worth about 100 UAH).
His colleague, Deputy Oleg Kvashchuk, is no stranger to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office. He has worked there since 2010, becoming Deputy Regional Prosecutor from his post as Head of the Department for the Protection of Citizens' Rights and State Interests in Environmental Matters at the Regional Prosecutor's Office.
Oleh Kvashchuk's family lived on one salary last year. The prosecutor contributed 152 hryvnias, while his wife and two daughters contributed 48 hryvnias. Kvashchuk's income declaration also noted that he used 23 hryvnias of his income last year to pay off a loan.
Unlike Romanov, Kvashchuk owns his own home—a 99-square-meter apartment—while the prosecutor's family owns a 230-square-meter country house and a 3000-square-meter plot of land. The prosecutor drives the traditional prosecutor's car, a 2008 Toyota Camry (a used one costs around 270 hryvnias), while the three of his daughters and wife share a 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class (a used one costs over 500 hryvnias).
I wonder how, living on one salary, the prosecutor's family can afford to buy and maintain such expensive cars?
Deputy Regional Prosecutor Yevhen Bezbrodov, who previously served as head of the Dzerzhinsky District Prosecutor's Office, is no stranger to Kharkiv. Last year, he earned 236 hryvnias, including 151 hryvnias in salary. The prosecutor's wife, however, was a successful entrepreneur, apparently, as her business generated 807 hryvnias in revenue. Overall, the prosecutor's family earned over 1 million hryvnias last year.
Bezbrodov owns his own 138-square-meter apartment and a 1215-square-meter plot of land, but his wife, other than land, owns no real estate and only two plots of 703 and 1813 square meters. The prosecutor doesn't own a car, but his wife drives the same 2008 Honda CR-V (used, costs around 300 hryvnias), as does the wife of Rivne Regional Prosecutor Serhiy Kubrak.
Tamed and abandoned
Three sailors from the prosecutor's vessel recently departed for the reserve. As the song goes, "Music plays on the ship, and I stand alone on the shore." Well, the music didn't last long for three Kharkiv deputy regional prosecutors who lost their jobs "due to lustration." The prosecutor's vessel sailed on, leaving the deputies waving white handkerchiefs from the shore.
Among the unlucky prosecutors was Viktor Pshonka's nephew, Dmitry Kavun, recently employed by Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema. He's been unlucky in this field once again: "I'm here and there, wherever they send me, and they send me often"—that's been Kavun's career motto lately.
Last year, Dmitry Kavun earned only 246 thousand UAH, and all of this was salary. At the same time, he keeps 70 thousand UAH in the bank for a rainy day.
The prosecutor's wife and two sons earned only 306 hryvnias between them through their business ventures. This is their family business venture, and judging by their income, it's not a very successful one, as it doesn't compare to the business of Prosecutor Bezbrodov's wife.
The prosecutor's family was luckier when it came to real estate: a 625-square-meter plot of land, a 390-square-meter apartment, a 36-square-meter garage, and 37-square-meters of other real estate—all of which belong to Kavun's wife and sons.
The prosecutor himself owns a 1500-square-meter plot of land, a 236-square-meter house, and a 129-square-meter apartment. Kavun drives a 2007 Mercedes-Benz GL-Class 450 to work. His property declaration states that he purchased the car for 220 hryvnias, but a used car like this currently costs at least 430 hryvnias. How did Kavun manage to buy it at such a huge discount? Did his prosecutor's uniform and badge really serve as a discount?
The prosecutor's family, however, doesn't have their own personal vehicle. Pshonka's nephew's family lives in rather poor circumstances; apparently, their uncle doesn't deliver parcels or send money orders from abroad.
Leonid Lakhtyuk, former head of the Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor's Office's Department for the Protection of Citizens' Rights and Freedoms and State Interests, was removed from his post as deputy regional prosecutor.
Last year, Deputy Regional Prosecutor Lakhtyuk's family lived on just one salary. The prosecutor managed to supplement the family budget by 249 hryvnias, and his wife by 97 hryvnias. Despite their rather modest income, the prosecutor's family owns a significant amount of real estate: Lakhtyuk himself owns a 1200-square-meter plot of land and a 33-square-meter apartment. The prosecutor's wife owns a 3500-square-meter plot of land, a 250-square-meter house, a 32,5-square-meter apartment, and a 90-square-meter garage. The prosecutor's wife also owns 149 square meters of other real estate.
The prosecutor commutes to work in his wife's Mercedes-Benz S 350 (a used one currently costs around 250 hryvnias), which he then carefully parks in her garage. Meanwhile, Lakhtyuk's wife uses public transportation.
Lustration also caught up with Alla Linnik, who, before becoming deputy regional prosecutor, headed the regional prosecutor's office's human rights department. Last year, her income was 703 hryvnias, of which 238 hryvnias was her salary, and the rest was income from the sale of property. Meanwhile, the prosecutor's husband and son contributed only 60 hryvnias in salary to the family budget.
The prosecutor owns land plots of 1570 square meters and 1200 square meters, as well as a 70 square meter apartment and a 19 square meter garage. The Linnik family owns a 34 square meter apartment and a 19 square meter garage.
The prosecutor's couple has three cars in two garages. Linnik herself owns a 2011 MINI Cooper (used, it costs about 300 hryvnias) and a 2010 BMW X6 (used, it costs about 840 hryvnias). Her family members also own identical cars.
That's how three of regional prosecutor Danilchenko's deputies were wooed and dumped. Just a few days later, the purged officials were replaced by Artem Stepanov and Oleksandr Stratyuk (a full namesake of the prosecutor, Stratyuk, who had previously become widely known during his work in Transcarpathia, where he actively "lobbied" for the interests of the Balogh clan).
In connection with the above, the Prosecutor's Truth has a number of questions:
— How did Yuriy Danilchenko manage to secure the post of Kharkiv regional prosecutor?
— where did pensioner Danilchenko get a car worth 1 million UAH?
— Where will Vitaly Yarema place Dmitry Kavun, the poor nephew of former Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka?
— Where did Alla Linnik, head of the regional prosecutor's office's human rights department, get property worth half a million hryvnias and a car worth 840 hryvnias for sale?
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