Svyatoslav Oleynik: To Become Dnipro Governor or a Investigator? Part 1

Svyatoslav Oleinik

If Svyatoslav Oleynik becomes the new head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, President Zelenskyy will make a mistake he will be unable to recover from for a long time. After all, nothing will ruin the reputation of a new government more than appointing known corrupt officials to leadership positions. And it's easy to verify that Svyatoslav Oleynik, currently Deputy Chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council, is one of these. Simply read our article carefully and follow the links provided. As they say, the facts are there! And so the question arises: where would Oleynik fit more comfortably – as governor or in the dock?

How a prosecutor became a member of parliament

Svyatoslav Vasilyevich Oleynik (his last name is often misspelled as Oliynyk) was born on December 4, 1975, according to some sources in Dnipropetrovsk (now Dnipro), and according to others, in the town of Sinelnykove in the Dnipropetrovsk region. His parents were ordinary people, but he had far from ordinary relatives. For example, his uncle was Nikolai Vasilyevich Oleynik, a longtime judge in the Zhovtnevy District Court of Dnipropetrovsk. It is said that it was he who encouraged his nephew to become a lawyer.

At the same time, rumors circulated about his alleged family ties to Dnipropetrovsk "thief in law" Sergei Alexandrovich Oleynik, nicknamed "Umka." This is not surprising, as there are 1,500 people in the city with that surname—anyone could be considered a hypothetical relative! But these rumors didn't arise out of nowhere, as Svyatoslav Oleynik owed his rise to power to a group of what might be called Dnipropetrovsk's "business elite," to which Umka was directly connected. The chain of events is as follows: Sergei Oleynik was a close associate and deputy of criminal "authority" Alexander Nalekreshvili (nicknamed "Narik"), whose organized crime group collaborated with Kolomoisky's Privat, as did the raider team of Gennady Korban and Boris Filatov , which Svyatoslav Oleynik later joined.

Sergey Oleynik (Umka)

Prosecutor Svyatoslav Oleynik (early 2000s)

In reality, "everything was true, but a little bit different." According to Skelet.Org sources , Prosecutor Oleynik did, in fact, prosecute several cases against heads of public utilities at one time—not for the sake of upholding the rule of law, but on the orders of, among others, those same organized crime groups and clans. The cases were brought against recalcitrant directors, or with the aim of installing their own people in their positions. With a judge at their side, these cases could easily reach a verdict or fall apart after a "settlement." Thus, Svyatoslav Oleynik quickly made friends with the right people, who offered him promising cooperation.

Now, let's move on from rumors to facts. As is well known, in 2015, a rift developed among Kolomoisky's "henchmen." Some of them fell out with each other, others fell out of favor with Igor Valerievich, and a battle ensued between them during the local elections. And as a result of this squabbling and internecine squabbles, Boris Filatov recalled his journalistic past and created a fascinating documentary about the life of Svyatoslav Oleynik. The film was so controversial that its initial YouTube posts quickly disappeared (be sure to watch copies quickly).

This film, of course, doesn't reveal all the facts about Svyatoslav Oleynik—otherwise, it would have become a problem for many people associated with him. For example, Gennady Korban openly admitted in an interview that Oleynik "came to our attention back in the 90s," and that "we followed him, guided him, helped him, lobbied for him, and wanted him to advance his career." Korban declined to share any details, but given what Korban himself did in the 90s and who his friends were, the speculation is hair-raising. What's evident is, at the very least, a strong connection between a corrupt prosecutor and semi-criminal raiders! One can only speculate about the services Prosecutor Oleynik provided to the Dnipropetrovsk mafia—in return for which they helped him quickly rise to the rank of Deputy City Prosecutor!

However, in 2005, Svyatoslav Oleynik suffered a serious setback. This forced him to abandon his career as a prosecutor and temporarily take up law practice. However, Oleynik is wrong to pretend he's poor: it's known that between 2005 and 2007, he already owned several firms (for example, Justus Consulting), but later, after becoming a member of parliament, he created new ones, naming his wife, Varvara Aleksandrovna Oleynik (they married in 1997), as their founder. Specifically, this is CGI Agency LLC (EDRPOU 35534729), which will be discussed below.

But Oleynik wasn't left idle. And the case was a very important one, opened in the summer of 2005 against Ihor Kolomoisky himself for the assassination attempt on lawyer Serhiy Karpenko, who was preventing the oligarch from seizing Dniprospetsstal. As journalist Serhiy Leshchenko wrote , Oleynik played a key role in the case: he was one of Kolomoisky's lawyers. As always, the oligarch had a whole team playing for him, each with their own responsibilities. Oleynik personally helped "get the blame" at the prosecutor's office and the Dnipropetrovsk courts, and ultimately, Oleynik secured the dismissal of Kolomoisky's criminal case in the Babushkinsky District Court "due to lack of evidence of a crime." The final conclusion to the case came in the fall of 2014, when Ihor Sholodko, the former investigator who had led and then suppressed the Kolomoisky case, was called to the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) force. He "heroically died" at Donetsk Airport on December 4 – the very day the Prosecutor General's Office was supposed to investigate the legality of the closure of the Kolomoisky case...

Having assessed the abilities of this obliging man, the Privatists decided to delegate Svyatoslav Oleynik to the Verkhovna Rada, buying him a favorable spot on the BYuT list for the 2006 elections. Gennady Korban personally handled this. "A measly five million dollars into the BYuT coffers – and Oleynik becomes a people's deputy," Brodsky later said, explaining how Svyatoslav Oleynik became a people's deputy. Five million dollars! Oleynik couldn't have earned that amount in a year of practicing law, even while working for Kolomoisky. So, it was either the "savings" of the corrupt prosecutor or, more likely, money from Privat. And not from the Korban-Filatov duo who worked for Privat (they were also called "Kolomoisky's contractors"), but from Privat itself. That is, by that time, Oleynik had established himself so well in the eyes of the oligarch that the latter decided to make him one of his puppets in the Rada.

To serve and to betray

Svyatoslav Oleynik served as a member of parliament in the 5th and 6th convocations (from 2006 to 2012), and during this time became notorious for several scandals—which he would now like to forget. The first of these was his active participation in shielding Dniprogaz management from criminal liability for the disaster that occurred in Dnipropetrovsk on October 13, 2007.

As a reminder, on that fateful day, due to Dniprogaz's negligence, a sharp pressure surge occurred in the gas distribution network of the Pobeda-1 district. This was followed by an explosion that destroyed a residential high-rise building and claimed the lives of 23 people. This nationwide emergency was initially responded to at the highest level, but ultimately, the victims received neither proper compensation nor justice. Why? Because, firstly, Oleynik's lawyers defended Dniprogaz in court, playing unfairly, simply dragging out the cases.

For example, in 2008, the Cabinet of Ministers sued Dniprogaz for 93,615 million hryvnias (almost $19 million at the then exchange rate). This money would have been enough to buy new housing for all the residents of the ill-fated building and pay compensation to the injured and the families of the deceased. The court of first instance upheld the Cabinet of Ministers' claims, but Dniprogaz lawyer Yaroslav Grizodub intervened, delaying payment through countless appeals and delays (and then the crisis struck). Grizodub was the in-house attorney for the aforementioned Agency CGI LLC, owned by Varvara Oleynik. Incidentally, this firm's activities included not only legal services but also cargo transportation, concrete production, and construction materials trading. Quite a broad scope! After 2014, however, the Oleyniks, hiding traces of their past, renamed the company to "Art-Beton Studio" LLC, registering it in the names of other people. More on that later, but in regard to the tragedy, it's important to note that in January 2009, the accused Dniprogaz executives Igor Ivankov, Maksim Sorokin, and Sergey Bachurin were... amnestied and released. How so?

Yaroslav Gryzodub

So, their case was initially heard in the Zhovtnevy Court of Dnipropetrovsk, where Svyatoslav Oleynik's uncle presides. The uncle, of course, preferred to keep his own counsel, handing the case over to his colleague, Serhiy Poyda (who was later caught buying expensive real estate). In this court, the Dniprogaz executives were initially released on bail of 8 million hryvnias (they found the money for this, but not for compensation to the victims), after which they calmly attended their hearings. Meanwhile, in Kyiv, in the Rada, Svyatoslav Oleynik was painstakingly working on the amnesty law, introducing 16 amendments (more than any other) and, according to Skelet.Org , lobbying for its swift adoption. And so the law was passed, the guilty parties were released by the Zhovtnevy Court, the claim for compensation was "chatted up" by Oleynik's lawyer – and only in 2011 was the case sent for further investigation, and then it was heard several more times in the Zaporizhzhia District Court.

This story with Dniprogaz had a sequel. Specifically, Dniprogaz's management company was GAZEX-Ukraine LLC, a subsidiary of the Russian company GAZEX, operating through the Cypriot offshore company Narell Enterprises Ltd. In fact, the Oleynik brothers (a member of parliament and a judge) defended the interests of GAZEX-Ukraine, and as a result, Svyatoslav Oleynik became a close friend of its director, Vitaly Demjanjuk. So much so, in fact, that the two became fascinated with ontopsychology—a form of "non-traditional" psychology developed by the Italian theologian Antonio Meneghetti (considered as dangerous as Scientology in some countries). In Ukraine, its well-known adherents, in addition to Svyatoslav Oleynik, include Igor Mazepa and Inna Bogoslovskaya . What's unclear is this: according to Oleynik, he studied ontopsychology at the Faculty of St. Petersburg State University, receiving his diploma there in 2009. But when did he manage to do that, while serving as a member of the Verkhovna Rada and actively lobbying for corrupt Ukrainian officials? Or was the diploma awarded to him for some special service to his Russian "partners"?

Vitaly Demjanjuk: murderer, fraudster, sectarian

As for Vitaliy Demjanjuk, according to media reports, his gratitude to Oliynyk for saving 93 million hryvnias was very generous. Incidentally, this man, responsible for the deaths of 23 Dnipropetrovsk residents and accused of corruption and multi-million-dollar embezzlement, has served as the head of the public council at the State Agency of Ukraine for Chernobyl Zone Management since 2017. This information makes one feel uneasy…

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org

CONTINUED: Svyatoslav Oleynik: To Become Dnipro Governor or a Investigator? PART 2

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