Fugitive former President Viktor Yanukovych recently failed to appear for questioning at the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine. This news was widely reported by Ukrainian media. However, almost no journalists mentioned the fact that Yanukovych's accomplices are freely roaming Ukraine, and they have caused Ukraine perhaps even more harm than the incarcerated president. This refers to the infamous judicial tandem of Viktor Tatkov and Artur Yemelyanov. For many Ukrainian businessmen, these names have become synonymous with judicial lawlessness—not only during the Yanukovych era, but, unfortunately, also today.
The main "achievement" of the Tatkov-Emelyanov tandem is the system of distributing cases among judges of the Supreme Commercial Court of Ukraine. They created it when Tatkov headed the Supreme Commercial Court of Ukraine and Emelyanov was his deputy. Emelyanov managed the system.
A particular judge would be assigned a case and told how it should be resolved. If the judge didn't want to get involved, the hearing would be scheduled for their vacation day, and the case would automatically be assigned to another judge. Some cases would thus pass through 5-8 judges, but ultimately, a compliant judge was always found.
The described scheme was used to legitimize the corporate raids carried out by the Tatkov-Emelyanov organized crime group. However, they also had outside "clients"—oligarchs, members of parliament, and lower-ranking businessmen who wanted to secure the seizure of someone else's business. The cost of a court decision under the Tatkov-Emelyanov system ranged from $500,000 to $10,000,000. Everything depended on the level of lawlessness and the size of the property or capital in dispute. Over time, thanks to the "organizational work" of the tandem, a whole galaxy of millionaire judges emerged in the Supreme Commercial Court of Ukraine.
Moreover, most of them still hold their positions. The lustration announced by the new government had almost no effect on judges. The only thing the "lustrators" managed to do was dismiss Tatkov from his post as head of the Supreme Commercial Court of Ukraine. Both Tatkov and Yemelyanov, however, remained judges.
The success of their corporate raiding operation is demonstrated by a number of unlawful court decisions. For example, in May of this year, Viktor Tatkov issued a ruling in case No. 910/19289/14. The judicial review committee found that "Judge V.I. Tatkov, as the former head of the Supreme Commercial Court of Ukraine, continues to influence judges in his fiefdom—the Commercial Court of Donetsk Oblast."
The commission members acknowledged that the judges of this court are handling cases in a manner that facilitates the work of Alexey Zhmailo, the state liquidator of bankrupt enterprises. Zhmailo is a member of the Tatkov-Emelyanov gang, which bankrupts enterprises it seizes so they can be bought back for pennies and on supposedly legal grounds. They admitted it, but the case never went any further.
Perhaps because the activities of these rogue judges are protected by a reliable "roof" in the High Council of Justice. This is one of Yemelyanov's partners, Pavel Grechkovsky. Journalists from Radio Liberty's "Schemes" program investigated Grechkovsky's activities and his connections to Yemelyanov and uncovered many interesting facts.
Back under Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, Grechkovsky (then a member of the Kyiv City Council) and Yemelyanov received 7,5 hectares of protected forest on Zhukov Island near Kyiv. This plot was leased for 10 years by a company called "Cesil," which claimed to be a health and wellness organization. Before the Maidan, in addition to his political activities, Grechkovsky was a lawyer and co-owner of the company "Cesil."
Even under Yanukovych, the prosecutor's office considered the removal of land from the nature reserve a violation. Prosecutors waged a protracted legal battle with the owners of Sesil. However, the company always emerged victorious. This is not surprising, considering that one of its owners was the head of the Kyiv Commercial Court at the time. This was, naturally, Artur Yemelyanov.
Why was Grechkovsky appointed to the High Council of Justice after the Revolution of Dignity? Because Tatkov and Yemelyanov needed someone who would clearly pass the lustration process within the judiciary and, at least to outside observers, would be a fresh face. It's not yet known how much they paid for this appointment. However, knowing these figures, one can assume it was in the millions of dollars.
The Tatkov-Emelyanov "tandem" deserves credit: they never skimped on bribes to solve their problems. According to various sources, Emelyanov paid between $9 and $40 million just to circumvent the lustration law (which was amended specifically to accommodate his "client").
Be that as it may, after his appointment, Grechkovsky was forced to hastily hide his assets in offshore accounts. However, if one were to dig deeper, one could trace both Yemelyanov's and Grechkovsky's involvement in the illegally seized forest plot. Yemelyanov is linked to these assets through his wife and the offshore companies Orion 2000 and Multiinvestment Establishment. Grechkovsky is linked to these assets through a similar offshore company, Cheval Blanc.
All of the above facts are easily verified. Moreover, they have all been established by various investigative bodies and inspection commissions. Hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces of evidence of Tatkov and Yemelyanov's crimes have accumulated over the years. However, for some reason, none of these investigations have been logically concluded. Raider judges continue to rob Ukrainian businesses. And neither war nor revolution can stop them. It's sad to realize that for these people in Ukraine, nothing has changed in the past year and a half.
Olga Obashidze, for SKELET-info
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