That's the social ladder: from a hard-currency prostitute to a businesswoman, from a corrupt cop to a prosecutor; and then there's the KGB, the UBOP, and the GPU...
This real-life story explains why we have the parliament, the Cabinet, the president, the officials, the state, and, as a consequence, the life we have. It would be strange if things were different.
Necessary foreword
"Rich American Hunt" was actually Kyiv native Alexander Okhotnikov, a promising athlete during the Soviet era. But he was a kleptomaniac, stealing wheels from Zhiguli cars in the then-Moskovsky (now Goloseevsky) district, for which the authorities and the party ruined his athletic career. In the mid-1980s, he was convicted of stealing wheels, intending to sell each one for 25 rubles. When perestroika began in the USSR, he left for Canada through family connections, and soon moved to the United States, where he became a citizen.
In the mid-1980s, Kyiv resident Oksana Moroz worked as a foreign currency prostitute at the Dnipro Hotel for foreigners on European Square, a hotel run by the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR. During Soviet times, the hotel's bar and restaurant were considered central hangouts for the criminal elite of the time. Alexander Okhotnikov was also a regular at the Dnipro Hotel and an admirer of Oksana Moroz. After his departure, Oksana Moroz married a prominent gangster of the 1990s, one of the Avdyshev brothers.
After the collapse of the USSR, Alexander Okhotnikov, now a US citizen with the surname "Hunt" (meaning "hunt"), returned to his native Kyiv. Okhotnikov-Hunt had amassed a fortune in the US, and he didn't arrive in Kyiv empty-handed. He rekindled his relationship with Oksana Moroz and married her. The young woman began calling herself Oksana Hunt, and with her husband's money and support, she opened a luxury clothing store, "Sanahunt," a derivative of the owner's first and last names, OkSANA HUNT, a hundred meters from her previous place of work, the Dnepr Hotel.
And this is what it all led to...
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Part 1: A Million in Cash
Oksana Moroz-Hunt, a well-known figure in Ukraine's pseudo-elite circles and the owner of the Sanahunt Luxury Department Store, a boutique clothing store located in central Kyiv, has found herself at the center of a major scandal.
The case was initiated on the evening of October 23, 2016, by former Deputy Chairman of the State Fiscal Service Konstantin Likarchuk, who posted on his Facebook page about the detention of an employee of "a well-known, large, and fashionable clothing store in the Muzeyny Lane area" during customs inspection at the Zhulyany Airport while attempting to smuggle approximately $1 million in various currencies out of Ukraine.
Likarchuk didn't name the woman detained or the clothing store itself, but commenters on his post clearly identified it as Sanahunt, located at the intersection of Hrushevsky Street and Muzeynyi Lane in Kyiv. Allegedly, the chief fiscal officer, Roman Nasirov, is a frequent visitor to this boutique, and it was he and representatives of the head of the State Fiscal Service who provided cover for the "courier."
"But something went wrong, and one of the customs officers inspected it. Border guards, who weren't in the know (Nasirov is known to be very greedy), saw this and raised a fuss," Likarchuk claimed.
The day after the incident, the State Fiscal Service's Facebook page reported that an Italian citizen had indeed been detained the previous day at the Zhulyan VIP terminal, attempting to smuggle over $1 million to Milan. Furthermore, photographs from the scene matched the image previously published by Likarchuk.
The State Fiscal Service noted that the currency was discovered using an X-ray during customs procedures. "During an oral interview, the woman denied having any currency, but when customs officers requested that she present her luggage for inspection, she refused, claiming she was a diplomat.
She described the items in the chemdan scanned by customs officers as diplomatic cargo containing notebooks. Since she was unable to present her diplomatic passport due to its absence, customs officers, in the presence of witnesses, inspected the passenger's luggage, where they found 230 euros and over 783 dollars... The cash was in sealed shoeboxes," the State Fiscal Service stated in a statement, which Nasirov himself reposted on Facebook.
It is known that customs officers confiscated the discovered currency as part of an administrative case regarding violation of customs regulations.
Following this, the publication "Polygraph," citing a source in the Prosecutor General's Office, noted that the "currency dealer" detained at the airport was allegedly Oksana Moroz-Hunt, the owner of Sanahunt, who, with the help of her patrons in the person of Vladimir Bedrikovsky, head of the Prosecutor General's Office's Department for Supervision of Compliance with Laws in Criminal Proceedings and Coordination of Law Enforcement Activities , is attempting to hush up the case.
"Immediately after this unfortunate misunderstanding, Oksana Hunt's loyal "protector" named Vladimir Bedrikovsky quickly intervened in the situation," the journalists claim.
Oksana Moroz-Hunt
However, the evidence that it was the "Female Mantis"—as journalists nicknamed Oksana Moroz—who was "received" at Zhulyany Airport on October 23 is disputed. It's most likely that the courier and subordinate of the scandalous businesswoman were the ones involved. Oksana Moroz-Hunt herself "appeared" in this story on October 25, but it's already clear how her patrons plan to return the woman's currency, which was "rejected" at the border.
According to Left Bank, citing a source in the National Police, a resident of Kyiv's Pecherskyi district, born in 1961, reported that 300 euros and $750—amounts comparable to those seized at the airport—were stolen from her apartment. The journalists clarified that the complainant, who "has no permanent place of employment," reported the theft to the police on October 24 at around 20:30 PM. She stated that the apartment was broken into by picking a key, and a criminal case has been opened under Part 5 of Article 185 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (theft). The victim's last name and year of birth match the passport details of the owner of the Sanahunt store—Moroz.
According to an Argument source in the Prosecutor General's Office, this entire scheme involving registering a fictitious apartment burglary serves one purpose: prosecutors' seizure of the confiscated currency from customs as "material evidence" in a "criminal proceeding" fabricated by the Prosecutor General's Office leadership. The prosecutors' next step will be to file a lawsuit to prevent the confiscated currency from being turned over to the state. And when the furor subsides, the fictitious "criminal proceeding" will be closed under a convenient pretext, and the "material evidence" equivalent to $1 million will be returned to Oksana Moroz-Hunt (possibly minus "bonuses" for the criminals among the leaders of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine).
The story about who is caring for Oksana Moroz-Hunt is below.
Part 2: Damaging Connections
How General Vladimir Bedrikovsky patronized the "female praying mantis" Moroz-Hunt for living a "Sanahunt-style" life on the eve of the 2004 Maidan and after the Euromaidan was investigated by the publication Prosecutor's Truth.
Vladimir Bedrikovsky, head of the Department for Supervision of Compliance with Laws in Criminal Proceedings and Coordination of Law Enforcement Activities of the Prosecutor General's Office and considered the personal consigliere and paymaster of Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, was directly involved in the scam involving the expulsion from Ukraine of businesswoman Oksana Moroz's husband, American citizen Alexander Hunt, in 2003-2004 during his tenure as deputy head of the Department for Combating Organized Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
Vladimir Bedrikovsky is on the right
This is evidenced by documents sent to the editorial office of Prosecutor's Truth by journalist and former head of the Advisory Council under the Prosecutor General's Office, Vladimir Boyko, at the request of the Prosecutor's Truth.
The reason for returning to this scandalous story from more than 10 years ago was a publication that was posted on the ORD website on October 5, 2016, and then deleted.
It stated that the well-known elite boutique "Sanahunt Luxury Department Store" with its prices and luxury that are quite atypical for the average Ukrainian citizen turned out to be a "regular client" of the equally well-known and expensive "protector" from the Prosecutor General's Office, Colonel-General Vladimir Bedrikovsky.
Oksana Moroz wasn't the first to master the fashion business's secret sauce and realize that selling $5 underwear for $10 meant exposing yourself to ignominious competition from the Troyeshchyna market. It's a different matter if this delicate item costs $500. Living in a country where Poplavsky and Natalia Mogilevskaya are considered the priests of art, and the artistic quality of clothing is determined by the numbers on the price tags, it would be a real sin not to try to capitalize on the intellectual level of the so-called newly minted elite. But to do this, as the unforgettable Svirid Petrovich Golokhvastov said, "you need a place." That is, a suitable space.
The publication "Prokurorskaya Pravda" pondered for a long time whether this information about the protection racket of "Sanahunt" by the head of the Prosecutor General's Office's "four" would be of interest, but given the details uncovered, it presents details of the relationship between the establishment's owner, Oksana Moroz, and her ex-husband, Alexander Hunt, as well as Ukrainian law enforcement.
It's worth noting that the founder of Ukraine's largest multi-brand store, which occupies 7000 square meters of space in a five-story mansion in central Kyiv, is currently listed as Oksana Moroz-Hunt, president of the Sanahunt Group and godmother of former President Viktor Yushchenko.
Over the 18 years of its existence, the fashion boutique on Grushevsky Street has become a favorite haunt for fashionable members of the Ukrainian government and their families, although the store's prices and selection are clearly beyond the means of honest government officials.
In particular, as journalists point out, a seemingly ordinary wool hat in this boutique costs over 20 hryvnias, a flower-embellished blouse costs 40 hryvnias, a silk dress costs 165 hryvnias, and a cashmere coat will set the buyer back over 240 hryvnias. (It's worth noting that the Kyiv headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs' Organized Crime Control Department were well aware back in the 2000s that most of the "elite" merchandise in this store was actually counterfeit, that is, imitations of famous global brands—this was the secret to the success of "Sanahunt," a business attributed to Alexander Okhotnikov—Argument.)
However, this pricing policy turned out to be quite affordable for "Sanahunt" regular Vladimir Bedrikovsky, who has been acting as a "cover" for the socialite Moroz for over a decade. The fact is that it was the current head of the Department of Supervision who, in 2003-2004, helped the future guarantor of the Constitution's godmother pull off a scam involving the extortion of money from her then-husband, American Alexander Hunt, and his expulsion from Ukraine.
This epic was described in the most detail by journalist Vladimir Boyko, who published a story titled "The Female Praying Mantis," which caused quite a stir online (and which Oksana Moroz and her influential patrons paid a considerable amount of money to remove—today, the original material is unavailable online).
Its roots go back to the late 90s, when Oksana Moroz met a wealthy American, Hunt.
Oksana Moroz, with the active assistance of her handlers from the Organized Crime Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, robbed her husbands, Avdyshev and Okhotnikov. For her fatal role in the lives of her husbands, Oksana Moroz was nicknamed "Praying Mantis" by a journalist. Argument sources attribute this favoritism toward Oksana Moroz-Hunt to the fact that she collaborated with the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR and was an agent of the Soviet secret service back in Soviet times. This same secret service was also behind the creation of the Organized Crime Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, which has overseen cooperation with the cunning woman since the 1990s.
At the time, in addition to her clothing store in the basement of Kyiv's Muzeynyi Lane, Hunt owned two apartments in a building at 8/16 Grushevskoho Street (numbers 1 and 2), but lacked funds to expand her business. On November 5, 1998, the couple married, and Hunt used his savings to finance the purchase of all the apartments from the tenants of the Grushevskoho building, covering the costs of their eviction, and undertaking a major renovation. Ultimately, in mid-December 1999, the "Sanahunt" boutique opened its doors to Ukrainian VIPs.
It's unclear exactly when Moroz (who held at least two Ukrainian passports with different dates of birth) decided to scam her American husband, but it is certain that Alexander Hunt's accounts held substantial funds even after Sanahunt opened. Oksana insisted on signing several loan agreements with her husband, registered with the National Bank of Ukraine, under which Alexander Hunt provided foreign currency loans to her company, Art-Plus.
He also paid for major renovations and furnished his wife's apartment on Bogomolets Street in Kyiv, provided her with five new Mercedes-Benz cars, and even purchased a large house with land on 63 Redutna Street in the capital for a future peaceful family life. Moroz-Hunt's delight abroad was supposed to be the villa Arakaria, La Canet, on the outskirts of Cannes (purchased for $2 million from Batkivshchyna MP Oleksandr Abdullin). In 2000, Oksana Moroz gave birth to Oleksandr Hunt's son, Nicholas; the American adopted his wife's son from her first marriage to a member of the Avdysh organized crime group, and it seemed like a true family idyll.
(Read more about the Avdyshev organized crime group in our materials: History of Bandit Ukraine. Avdyshev organized crime group: leaders and formation, History of Bandit Ukraine. Avdyshev organized crime group: expansion. Operational reports, History of Bandit Ukraine: Avdyshev organized crime group - banditry, terrorism, A.M. Volkov, the killer "Afghanets" ..., History of Bandit Ukraine: "Patent", "Mercury", "brigades" and leaders. Documents, History of Bandit Ukraine: Avdyshev, the "magnificent seven" and "sixes". DOCUMENTS, Bandits of Kyiv in 1996: gangs and bandit unions. Document).
Ultimately, with the help of forged signatures and the assistance of the Ukrainian law enforcement system, which still protects her business, Oksana Moroz-Hunt divorced her husband, leaving him completely penniless and without property, and also having his entry into Ukraine banned.
Specifically, with the help of Hunt's former secretary, Oksana Pustovit, who had the authority to sign the American's payment documents, his capital was transferred to Moroz's accounts, and her husband was kicked out. The happy and wealthy "praying mantis" celebrated New Year's 2003 at an estate on the French Riviera, while Hunt himself tried to figure out who had shaved him off.
He contacted the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) to review previously registered loan agreements with the company "Art-Plus" and sought to have them repaid. He was met with failure—the original documents had vanished well in advance, and in their place were forgeries—the loan repayment terms had been extended. Hunt eventually realized how his wife had conned him, filing complaints with the Moscow police and prosecutor's office on January 29, 2003, detailing Oksana Moroz's possession of forged documents and the history of the Art-Plus loan scam.
Having failed to elicit any response, the American decided to take the extreme step of reporting his ordeal and the inaction of Ukrainian security forces to the diplomatic mission of his adopted homeland, the United States. His visit there on February 10, 2003, ended with Hunt's American passport being confiscated and him being shown the door (this was done by Ukrainian citizens of the US Embassy's consular service, acting on orders from Ukraine's UBOP; after this scandal, these employees, likely recruited by the KGB or its "puppet" UBOP, were fired, and Okhotnikov/Hunt's passport was returned—Argument).
In addition to being forced to hide from Ukrainian law enforcement for two months without documents, Hunt, at the instigation of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, was also framed for allegedly violating his U.S. citizenship application in 1985. While the American was searching for an escape route, his wife, on April 1, 2003, obtained a court ruling on their divorce, issued by the judges of the island of Haiti!
Only after the direct intervention of the US State Department, to whom Hunt's lawyers vividly described the American's misadventures in Kyiv, was his passport returned on May 16, 2003, and he left Ukraine. However, to prevent his ex-husband from returning and attempting to recoup the millions he had invested in the "Moroz case," representatives of the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine submitted a request to the State Border Protection Department to ban Hunt from entering the country.
Ukrainian security officials officially denied this. In response to inquiries from the American's lawyers, Vitaliy Antonyuk, Deputy Director of the State Border Protection Department of the State Border Service Administration, stated in a letter dated 7/2/7266, dated April 30, 2004, that "no decision was made by the State Border Service to deny Hunt entry." "To establish the grounds for restricting citizen Hunt's right to enter Ukraine, you should contact the Ministry of Internal Affairs," the border guards hinted.
However, the response to Bogomolets was no less categorical. Then-Deputy Head of the Organized Crime Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Vladimir Bedrikovsky, assured Hunt's defense that Ukrainian law enforcement officials were completely unaware of the American's entry ban. "I inform you that the special units for combating organized crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine do not make decisions to deny entry to Ukraine to foreign citizens," Bedrikovsky asserted in letter 9/7-4380 dated May 28, 2004.
Bedrikovsky openly lied to the Americans – back in 2003, at the instigation of the future head of the Prosecutor General's Office "four" in post-Maidan Ukraine in 2016, Hunt was banned from entering Ukraine for five years.
It should be added that Alexander Hunt is no longer alive: he died under mysterious circumstances in a Milan hotel. It is unknown whether the American learned of Bedrikovsky's role in his expulsion from the country, or whether he realized that his ex-wife had been working for many years under the protection of the UBOP (and before that, the KGB—Argument).
Oksana Moroz-Hunt has outlived her two husbands and continues to build her business. And, judging by the support she receives from security officials involved in working for the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR, she likely works against the Ukrainian state in the interests of the Russian intelligence services.
Bedrikovsky's return to law enforcement and his rise during the Prosecutor General's "Jurassic Period" to the post of Head of the Supervision Department allowed him to fully enjoy his intensified collaboration with Oksana Moroz. The Prosecutor General's "cashier" arranged exclusive working conditions for his trusted protégé—no inspections or pressure from the authorities.
Vladimir Bedrikovsky
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P.S. It will take more than one generation to heal Ukraine's post-Soviet society. Reforms can only alleviate the disease, but not shorten its duration.
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