Accused of treason, ex-regional Efremov fled to Moscow, where his family owns apartments for $4 million, - mass media
The former head of the Party of Regions faction, Oleksandr Yefremov, is currently in Russia, where his family owns luxury apartments in the Triumph Palace residential complex.
This is stated in the material of "Schemes", Censor.NET reports.
The former MP is accused of several crimes in Ukraine. In particular, according to the investigation, Yefremov contributed to the creation of the Luhansk People's Republic and helped to seize the administrative buildings of the Luhansk Regional State Administration and the Security Service of Ukraine in 2014. He is also accused of treason. The former MP denies these charges, and his lawyers call the prosecutors' arguments "unconvincing". The case against him is currently in court.
Yefremov was released from custody in 2019 after 3 years in the pre-trial detention centre in Starobilsk, Luhansk region. He was initially released under house arrest, and then the measure of restraint was changed to a personal commitment for two months until November 2019, which was not extended afterwards. One of Yefremov's lawyers in the case was Andriy Smirnov, who is now the deputy head of the OP.
After his release from the detention centre, Yefremov began to travel abroad regularly. In particular, to Russia. Including right before the full-scale invasion.
The Schemes journalists found out that he had travelled there 4 times through Bachivsk, a checkpoint in Sumy region.
"In particular, such trips were recorded in August and November 2020, as well as in October 2021. The last time Yefremov travelled directly to Russia was right before the invasion of Russian troops - he left on 4 February 2022 and returned to Ukraine on 19 February via the same route. And on 18 March 2022, Oleksandr Yefremov left Ukraine by rail through the Chop (Strazh) checkpoint on the border with Slovakia and has not returned," the authors of the article noted, adding that Yefremov is currently in Moscow.
In Russia, he registered his residence at two Moscow apartments. In particular, this is Moscow, Chapayevsky Lane, 3. This is data from leaks from the database of the private medical laboratory Hemotest for 2021. This address is home to the Triumph Palace, an elite residential complex, the second tallest skyscraper in Russia after Moscow City, built in the Stalinist Empire style.
Triumph Palace residential complex in Moscow
"Yefremov's place of registration is a two-storey apartment located on the 26th and 27th floors with a total area of 466.5 square metres. According to Skhemy, having obtained an extract from the Russian real estate register, they have been registered in the name of Yefremov's son, Ihor, since 2016. The cost of such apartments, according to the relevant real estate websites, is about 280 million rubles, or $2.8 million," the article says.
Another record from the Gemotest database for 2022 shows another place of residence for Yefremov, also an apartment in the Triumph Palace, but on the 11th floor. The total area is 191.8 square metres. According to Rosreestr, the apartment has also been owned by the son of the former head of the Party of Regions faction since 2007. According to the relevant real estate websites, its value is about 115 million rubles, or $1.2 million.
The total value of the Moscow real estate of the Yefremov family found by journalists is over $4 million (or over UAH 150 million).
"The Schemes also established that Yefremov has a Russian individual tax number. The Russian authorities keep track of it in relation to Yefremov's Ukrainian passport. The former MP also has a Russian insurance number (SNILS), which allows him to receive pension payments in Russia. The journalists received an extract from the database of the Russian Pension and Social Insurance Fund, which shows Yefremov's length of service in the Soviet Union.
The journalists contacted Yefremov and called his Russian number. When asked what he was doing in Moscow and whether he planned to return to Ukraine, he replied: "You know, I don't have any plans to give any interviews right now, goodbye".
The editorial board also sent a request to the Prosecutor General's Office asking whether they knew Yefremov's whereabouts, whether he was put on the wanted list, what preventive measures he had in the criminal proceedings and why no court hearings were held in the case.
In response, the PGO informed Schemes that Yefremov has no preventive measures and has not been put on the wanted list. They did not answer the question about his whereabouts. The prosecutor's office also added that no court hearings had been scheduled in the case, "which is probably due to the temporary occupation of Starobilsk". The prosecutor's office stated that the cases of the Starobilsk court should now be considered by the Synelnykivsky City District Court of the Dnipropetrovsk region.
At the same time, the PGO noted that they had "not received any information about the actual transfer of Yefremov's case file to another court".
