In the capital's Commercial Court, justice is administered by dubious individuals with a history of corruption.
As Grom reports, journalists from the "Nashi Groshi" program reviewed the asset declarations of Kyiv Commercial Court judges, spoke with the judges themselves, and inspected their properties. In the court's closed parking lot, they found a Jaguar XF 3.0, a Toyota Land Cruiser, and an Audi Q5, which were not included in the asset declarations.
Inna Otrosh
Judge of the Commercial Court of Kyiv and daughter of the judge of the Pechersk District Court - Inna Alekseevna Otrosh.
The elder Otrosh was appointed as a judge of the Pechersk District Court in 2004. From April 2007 to April 2014, she served as the court's chairperson. In 2014, the High Council of Justice attempted to dismiss the judge for violating her oath. However, the vote was postponed. After the occupation of Crimea, media outlets discovered that the elder Otrosh was working as a judge in Yalta.
Representatives of the Pechersk District Court now report that Inna Otrosh is still serving as a judge. They have not checked whether Otrosh is combining the Pechersk and Yalta courts, as they are not required to do so. Tetyana Kozachenko, head of the Ministry of Justice's lustration department, reported that Inna Otrosh did not even submit an application for an audit, as required by the Law "On the Cleansing of Government," even though she was required to do so within 10 days of the start of the audit.
"We found neither a statement nor a declaration. We subsequently learned that she hadn't filed a statement. We filed a complaint with the High Council of Justice regarding her dismissal under the lustration law. We appealed to the Pechersk Court again and asked them to explain why they were waiting several months for a letter from her when mail in Ukraine usually arrives in three to four days," said Tatyana Kozachenko.
While the Ministry of Justice is trying to fire the elder Otrosh, the Prosecutor General's Office is pursuing the younger one. In April 2014, investigators from the Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case, accusing members of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine of tampering with the computer system to adjust the scores of judicial candidates. According to investigators, such manipulations with scores were carried out repeatedly throughout 2012 and 2013. It was during this period that the younger Inna Otrosh was first appointed. In May 2013, Viktor Yanukovych appointed her as a judge of the Commercial Court of Luhansk Oblast. A few months later, Otrosh was transferred to the Commercial Court of Kyiv. Just six months later, investigators from the Prosecutor General's Office began an investigation.
According to law enforcement, Inna Otrosh provided a work record book indicating she was working in graduate school at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. This allowed the candidate to "inflate" the legal experience required for appointment as a judge. However, the Prosecutor General's Office discovered that Otrosh had not worked, but had only attended university.
Teachers confirmed to journalists that Otrosh did not work at the university.
The investigation has been ongoing for two years and is being held in the Pechersk Court, where the elder Otrosh's colleagues are refusing to participate in her daughter's trial and, one after another, are recusing themselves. The official reason: they are working with the mother of the judge under investigation.
Only in December 2015 did the Pechersk Court grant the Prosecutor General's Office (GPU) representatives access to the documents. However, the results of the audit were concealed from the court registry.
The dismissal of the senior Otrosh is a matter of time and political will. The woman has influential friends: the media links her to Andriy Portnov, the former deputy head of the presidential administration of Viktor Yanukovych (Read more about it in the article Andrey Portnov: A Raider's Story). The elder Otrosh and Portnov were members of the High Council of Justice. The younger Otrosh became his neighbor. Inna Otrosh was given a three-room apartment in Pechersk at 36v Zadniprovsky Street. Andrey Portnov himself also owns property in the same building.
The young judge also received a gift of one million hryvnias in 2013. Her asset declaration lists three apartments, a 450-square-meter country house, and a Lexus RX 350. It's worth noting that before her appointment as a judge, she had only worked for a few years as an assistant to a private notary.
Nikolay Yakimenko
He was appointed a commercial court judge by Kuchma in 2002. He owns and has never owned any businesses. According to his property declaration, Mykola Yakimenko owns a 1999 Kia Sephia. However, he drives a Jeep Grand Cherokee worth over a million hryvnias to work. This car is not listed in the judge's property declaration.
The Jeep is registered to Viktoria Mykolaivna Moiseyenko, who is registered under the same roof as the judge's wife, Natalia Yakimenko. She is likely the judge's daughter. Until recently, a Mercedes GL 550, valued at over 3 million hryvnias, registered to the judge's 74-year-old mother, Zoya Yakimenko, had the same license plates as the Jeep.
The only business owner in the judge's family is his wife, Natalia Yakimenko. She is a co-founder of Charivshchyna LLC, which extracts sand, gravel, and clay. However, none of the family's expensive cars are registered to her.
Elena Chinchin
The judge arrives to work in a Lexus RX 350. The car is registered to her husband, Nikolai Chinchin, a former investigator for the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In March 2013, Vitaly Zakharchenko appointed 36-year-old Mykola Chynchin as head of the Main Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. In March 2014, Avakov ( read more about him in the article " Arsen Avakov: The Criminal Past of the Minister of Internal Affairs ") fired the judge's husband. After his dismissal, Chynchin registered as a sole proprietor in Kyiv. In 2014, he earned almost a million hryvnias. He also earned another million from real estate sales. Mykola Chynchin's income in 2013 was only 64 hryvnias. Neither the judge nor her husband had ever owned a business before.
In the judge's 2015 declaration, a 119-square-meter apartment in Kyiv is registered to her husband. The judge herself owns one-third of the 100-square-meter apartment and a Lexus RX 350.
Nikolai Chinchin's father owns two apartments in Novopecherskie Lypki. The former investigator's mother is a co-founder of the Donetsk company "Titan." This company, along with several other legal entities, is linked to Lesprom LLC, which received state contracts for ship repairs.
In 2015, the Kyiv Oblast Office of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine awarded UAH 3.500.000 in repairs to Kyiv Oblast courts. Lesprom LLC received an additional UAH 2 million for repairs to courts in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, both controlled by Ukraine. Furthermore, from 2008 to 2011, Lesprom received UAH 8 million from Donetsk State University and also bid on Ukrgazvydobuvannya tenders in 2015.
At the beginning of 2016, the co-founders of Lesprom were Saveliy Zhitomirsky (RF), Vladislav Oleynik and Alexander Adamovich (Donetsk).
But in February 2015, the foreign company Glenord, whose owners included Dufour, a subsidiary of Magnit LLC, was also among the co-founders. In 2002, Svetlana Chinchin was a co-owner of Magnit, and Magnit itself was a co-founder of the aforementioned Titan, also owned by Chinchin.
Alla Prygunova
Alla Prygunova was appointed to the position of judge in 2008. She arrives to work in an Audi A5 worth almost a million.
Prygunova is a figure in the Prosecutor General's Office investigation. Investigators discovered that the lawyer incited his client to pay the judges hearing his case, including Judge Prygunova, a $20 bribe to secure a decision. Investigators allege that the lawyer had colluded with the judges beforehand.
For his part, the representative of Themis insists the accusations are groundless: "I believe this case, in which I am accused of accepting a bribe, is directly related to my position regarding Supreme Commercial Court Judge Artur Yemelyanov (read more: Artur Yemelyanov: A Yanukovych-era raider judge is still in business ). I cannot yet provide more details, since the case has not yet been heard."
The case against Prygunova was indeed opened several months after she reported pressure and threats from former Supreme Commercial Court judge Artur Yemelyanov. It was from his accounts that Liechtenstein's financial intelligence service seized 13.000.000 francs.
According to her 2015 asset declaration, the judge owns a 113-square-meter apartment, uses 73 square meters, and uses an Audi A5. Her 78-year-old father, Boris Prygunov, also owns a 113-square-meter apartment, a gift from the judge, and the same Audi A5 used by the judge. Prygunova's father also owns a plot of land in Kyiv's Holosiivskyi district, which has been seized by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
Roman Boyko
Before joining the court in 2009, he practiced law. According to Boyko's 2014 property declaration, he owns a 150-square-meter apartment. His 2015 declaration lists his income as 230 hryvnias and 1 million hryvnias in bank accounts. His wife, Oksana Boyko, has an income of 7 million hryvnias.
Roman Boyko owns two plots of land in the Kyiv region—1 square meters and 1,95 square meters. Both are allegedly gifts from the state. The judge's wife also received land from the state—another 19,5 hectares. His wife acquired two more plots of land near Kyiv (0,044 and 0,24 hectares) in 2014. Both plots are located on the edge of a forest. Construction workers are currently working on the plots. Two floors have already been built.
Oksana Boyko is a private entrepreneur. She can afford the land. A much more interesting story involves an attempt to acquire a seven-story historic building in Kharkiv—a former manufacturing plant built in 1914. The building was leased by Boyko's company, AELITA. After the lease expired in 2007, the regional office of the State Property Fund held a tender. The premises were transferred to another company, but Kharkiv-based Aelita filed a lawsuit to overturn the tender results and privatize the building. The lawsuit over the historic building in Kharkiv ended up in the Kyiv Commercial Court. Boyko's company attempted to privatize the property for 199 hryvnias, although an expert assessment had valued the building at 11.000.000 hryvnias.
Victoria Jarty
Daughter of Regions member Vasyl Dzharty and wife of former Party of Regions MP Valeriy Omelchenko, who voted for the "dictatorial laws." In 2013, 32-year-old Viktoria Dzharty was appointed a judge for life. She is currently on maternity leave and has not been officially dismissed. She owns hundreds of square meters of real estate in Yalta and Donetsk, as well as a 610 square meter house in the village of Romankiv in the Kyiv region. A house of the same size in Romankiv can currently be purchased for 40 million hryvnias.
On the topic: Artur Yemelyanov. The Yanukovych-era raider judge is still in business.
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