New Head of State Financial Monitoring Pronin brings family friend, photographer, former McDonald’s employee, and people from his previous workplace into his team – Bihus.info. VIDEO
After Filip Pronin was appointed as head of the State Financial Monitoring Service, the agency has turned into a club of "insiders." Pronin’s team now includes employees from his previous workplace, a family friend, and individuals without the necessary professional background.
This is stated in an investigation by Bihus.Info, Censor.NET reports.
Pronin replaces Ihor Cherkaskyi
Filip Pronin took charge of the State Financial Monitoring Service on 31 December 2024, succeeding Ihor Cherkaskyi, who had led the agency since 1 March 2014.
Before his appointment, Pronin headed the Poltava Regional State Administration. From 2017 he worked at ARMA, and in 2020 he became a deputy head of that National Agency.
Investigators note that the State Financial Monitoring Service drew widespread attention early this year after its role in imposing sanctions on former president Petro Poroshenko. During that period, Pronin’s team underwent sweeping personnel changes, bringing in many new faces.
Bohdan Korolchuk is appointed as the first deputy
Bohdan Korolchuk has been appointed as Filip Pronin's first deputy at the State Financial Monitoring Service. He worked for more than 15 years at the National Police of Ukraine and in 2023 was appointed to the position of Pronin's first deputy at the Poltava Regional State Administration.
However, Pronin and Korolchuk are linked by more than their time working in Poltava. Korolchuk’s wife, Tetiana, previously served in ARMA’s Asset Tracing and Recovery Division when it was headed by Filip Pronin.
Journalists discovered that she now co-owns, together with Filip Pronin’s wife, a company providing consulting services.
Despite the family’s entirely average income, in 2023 Korolchuk’s wife acquired high-value real estate, an apartment in Kyiv’s Dock32 residential complex, along with two storage units and two parking spaces. The purchases totalled more than USD 160,000, while the family’s official income for the previous two years was lower even when savings are taken into account.
Ex-ARMA colleagues
Another member of Pronin’s team at the Financial Monitoring Service is Vitalii Teslenko, who previously worked with him at ARMA. At the time of his resignation Teslenko declared that he was registered in a dormitory and living in an old "hostel-type" apartment. Yet just one month after leaving ARMA he became the owner of a 100-square-metre flat in Kyiv’s Hennessy House residential complex for roughly USD 140,000.
Investigators note that Teslenko’s official income consisted only of his salary and a few thousand in savings—insufficient for such a purchase. In his asset declaration he stated that the apartment had been "gifted" by his 80-year-old mother, who, according to registry data, has never run a business.
The investigation also found that Pronin’s team includes Artem Matios, a nephew of former Chief Military Prosecutor Anatolii Matios.
Former McDonald’s employee and a student with no experience
The task of analysing risks in the budget sphere and public administration has recently been assigned to Diana Viier.
Journalists reported that girl graduated from Kyiv National Economic University last year, and her previous job, according to her own declaration, was at McDonald’s.
Foreign-risk analysis is now handled by Dmytro Prachuk, who had never held an official job before joining the service and lived on a student stipend and family support.
Chief specialist for financial-monitoring strategy: a photographer
The position of chief specialist for the development strategy of financial monitoring has been given to Kateryna Pieshykova, a photographer. Until December 2022, she ran a sole-proprietorship photography business in Poltava and later worked in the press office of the Poltava Regional Administration, where she met Filip Pronin.
After his appointment to the State Financial Monitoring Service, she moved to Kyiv and became a civil servant.
Journalists discovered that Pieshykova continues doing commercial photo shoots after taking her government post. To confirm this, the reporters booked a session with the "development-strategy specialist."
She asked to be paid in cash, quoting a rate of 2,000 hryvnias per hour.
When Bihus.info investigators asked Pieshykova how she obtained her state position, she refused to comment.
Watch more here:
