Ukraine’s SBU says Medvedchuk wife’s companies financed Russian security forces in occupied Crimea
The SBU conducted 11 searches, in particular, on real estate properties of Medvedchuk's wife (Photo:SBU)
Companies ultimately owned by Oksana Marchenko, the wife of Viktor Medvedchuk, former leader of the banned pro-Russia political party Opposition Platform – For Life in Ukraine, transferred millions of hryvnias to the Russian National Guard and the Interior Ministry in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea, Ukraine’s SBU security service reported on Feb. 7.
According to the investigation, the companies allegedly paid the Russians for the “protection of Medvedchuk’s real estate” on the territory of the peninsula. Marchenko’s business structure also regularly replenished the Russian budget by paying “taxes and fees.”
The total amount of payments to Russia is more than UAH 50 million or the of equivalent $1.3 million.
The SBU found out that Marchenko’s company continued to finance the Russian budget after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
To implement the scheme, Marchenko registered a company in the city of Yalta, Crimea, with a charter capital of more than 1 billion rubles ($14 million). Assets of three Kyiv-based investment companies were used to do this. Later, the company in Crimea signed the corresponding “security agreements” with the Russian National Guard and the Interior Ministry.
The SBU conducted 11 searches at properties belonging to Medvedchuk’s wife, at the offices of her Kyiv companies, and at the residences of their top managers, and found the following:
- documents, computers, flash drives, and mobile phones with evidence of the illegal scheme;
- seals and bank cards used by the participants in illegal activities.
The SBU served Marchenko and the head of an affiliated company in Crimea with charge papers under Part 3 of Art. 110−2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
The heads of three Kyiv companies involved in the scheme are also expected to be charged. They face up to eight years in prison with confiscation of property.
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