From conceptual tigers to ordinary bribe-takers: chronicle of suspicions and scandals of "servants of people"
On Monday, the NABU detained another People’s Deputy from the Servant of the People for bribery. The elected representative of the presidential party was not above making money from the reconstruction of Okhtyrka, which was destroyed by the ruscists.
Since this is the second high-profile scandal in less than a month, Censor.NET decided to collect all the violations of the law by the "servants" during their term.
On 21 July 2019, early elections to the Verkhovna Rada were held, resulting in 254 seats in the parliament for the Servant of the People party (124 list members and 130 majority members). This is the first time in the history of Ukraine that a mono-majority has been formed in parliament.
At the beginning of his political career, Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised to create a team of people who would demonstrate new approaches to politics. Instead, those who entered into parliament on Zelenskyy's back became a real cross for his rating.
In the first years of the government alone, 12 majoritarian deputies left the Servant of the People faction. Most of these people's deputies were expelled from the faction after high-profile corruption scandals.
Few people will remember that the first to be expelled from the faction were majoritarian People`s Deputies Anna Skorokhod and Anton Poliakov. Skorokhod was elected in a constituency in the Kyiv region, where the odious Oleksandr Onishchenko was supposed to run, and Poliakov - in the Chernihiv region. Skorokhod was expelled from the faction for blocking the draft law on unbundling Naftogaz and lobbying for her husband's interests.
Poliakov was expelled from the faction on the same day as Skorokhod for not voting on the draft laws that the faction decided to support. In December 2019, Poliakov wrote a letter of resignation from the party, stating that he could not be in a party where there were "voter fraudsters, Porokhobots (a portmanteau of ‘Poroshenko’ and ‘robot’ - ed. note), fans of ‘ decision-making’ (use of schemes, connections, phone calls to quickly resolve issues ed. note )and leaders who were involved in it and covered it all up. After that, Poliakov, who himself has very dubious connections, will repeatedly accuse his former party of dubious actions, such as People`s Deputies receiving salaries in envelopes right in the toilet of the Verkhovna Rada. In October 2021, Poliakov was found dead in the back of a taxi.
Roman Ivanisov, a majoritarian from Rivne, was the third to be expelled from the faction, as the media learned that he had an expunged conviction for rape.
Geo Leros was next in line for exclusion. But not because of his own scandals, but for accusations of corruption against Andrii Yermak himself.
In September 2020, the Servants faced their first corruption case. The NABU exposed Ivan Fishchenko, an assistant to Oleksandr Yurchenko, a deputy's aide from the Servant of the People, for taking a $13,000 bribe. The deputy was supposed to submit amendments to the draft law "On Waste Management" for money. As part of the scheme, it was proposed to bribe other colleagues - "ideally, 10 (committee members - Ed.) should be corrupted, plus two for some kind of force majeure."
Later, Yurchenko was arrested by the HACC and released on bail of 3 million.
In 2022, on the eve of the full-scale Russian invasion, after his passport was returned to him, Yurchenko flew to the Dominican Republic for a holiday. At that time, he had the status of an accused and his case was being heard in court. Upon his return, he was detained for swearing and cursing at a territorial defense checkpoint.
Now Yurchenko's case is being heard on the merits in the HACC. He was recently fined 1,500 hryvnias for failing to appear in court.
In March 2021, the Servants had to expel majoritarian Oleksandr Dubinskyi because he was included in the US sanctions list. To be honest, before that, the former 1+1 TV host had been involved in scandals due to the incredible number of luxury cars registered to his mother and his role in local elections in the Kyiv region. And the phrase "Mom loves speed" became a meme
On 1 March 2021, he was involved in an accident near Stryi when he drove his Toyota Land Cruiser into the oncoming lane.
In November 2023, Dubinskyi was charged with high treason (the SSU and the SBI accused him of information and subversive activities in favour of Russia) and is currently in the detention centre.
In May 2021, Yevhen Shevchenko, a majoritarian from Zaporizhzhia, was expelled from the Servant of the People faction. The president's faction could no longer tolerate the deputy's public support for the actions of the Lukashenko regime. This, however, did not prevent Shevchenko from later boasting that he was an agent of the DIU.
Also that year, the "servants" were notable for flying Arakhamia on an agricultural businessman's charter to Mykolaiv and for swearing at the police by Halushko, a majoritarian from Brovary. However, these antics went unpunished.
But the most high-profile scandal involving the Servants happened on Independence Day. Back then, Oleksandr Trukhin, a member of the presidential faction and a member of the Budget Committee, caused a three-car accident that injured six people. They tried to hide a scandal and Trukhin's companion took the blame. The accident was only discovered because a football referee was injured and sports journalists saw the news about it suddenly removed from dozens of websites.
Trukhin denied his guilt until Mykhailo Tkach published an investigation that included a recording from the police officer's body camera. The recording shows Trukhin at the scene of the accident asking the police to "let him go" "into the forest" and promising to thank them with "sweets" from his bag. According to one version, Trukhin was carrying a grey cash in hand for his "servants" in a sports bag. After Tkach's story was published, the People`s Deputy was expelled from the faction. The fate of the bag remains unknown.
On February 23, 2023, the High Anti-Corruption Court approved an agreement between People's Deputy Oleksandr Trukhin and the prosecutor to find him guilty in the case of attempted bribery of police officers. On the same day, the Rada terminated his parliamentary powers.
According to the agreement, the People's Deputy pledged to transfer UAH 6 million to the UNITED24 project "Army of Drones" and paid a fine of UAH 68 thousand.
Interestingly, in an interview with NV, "NABU agent" Yevhen Shevchenko recalled that in April 2022, at the request of Iryna Venediktova, NABU Deputy Director Hizo Uhlava paused the investigation into Trukhin.
A month before the full-scale invasion, detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau exposed People's Deputy Serhii Kuzminykh on a bribe of more than half a million hryvnias. The People's Deputy promised assistance, which in fact meant ensuring victory in tenders for the purchase of equipment for the hospital at the expense of the budget. A year ago, the court proceeded to hear the case on the merits.
It would be too much to mention local People's Deputies from the "servants" as generators of corruption scandals. But one will have to be mentioned because of the involvement of key officials in its history. In February 2022, the NABU detained Kyiv City Council member Vladyslav Trubitsyn for selling permits for the placement of architectural accessories in the Obolon district of Kyiv. As part of the pre-trial restraint, prosecutors read out the Covert Investigative Activities (CIA) materials, which indicated that Trubitsyn went to report on the margin once a month not to anyone, but to the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, Oleh Tatarov.
In the summer of 2023, Trubitsyn fled Ukraine for Israel with his friend, based on a letter from the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine that he was a volunteer. Trubitsyn was last reported to be living in Haifa under a different name.
A week ago, the NABU and the SAPO served Trubitsyn with a new suspicion in absentia. He is accused of asking for an improper advantage for the appointment of the deputy director of the Zhytnii Market public utility company.
The "servants" spent the first year of the full-scale invasion, like everyone else, in uncertainty, but some of them also wanted to hide their wealth.
On 14 October 2022, the NABU and the SAPO served a notice of suspicion to Anna Kolisnyk, People`s Deputy from the Servant of the People party, of making false statements in her e-declaration worth over UAH 4.4 million. The People`s Deputy forgot to include 2 apartments in her declaration. Such negligence cost the People`s Deputy as much as 44 thousand UAH fine, which was imposed by the HACC verdict.
Kolisnyk was not the only one who received a similar suspicion for false declarations. Not only the "servants" received them, but also representatives of other factions. For example, Iryna Konstankevych (For the Future), Artur Herasymov, Mykhailo Zabrodskyi (both from the ES) and Mykhailo Volynets (Batkivshchyna ("Fatherland" - ed. note)).
Among the "servants", Marharyta Shol, Maksym Pashkovskyi and Yurii Kamelchuk were also prosecuted based on NAPC materials, but the latter was acquitted by the court.
In addition, in November 2022, the Anti-Corruption Action Center had to go to court to seek the opening of proceedings against People's Deputy Iryna Allakhverdiieva (now Kormyshkin) from Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin.
The reason for the appeal was that Iryna Allakhverdiieva, a member of the Servant of the People party, received UAH 14.4 million as a gift. Before that, she was given another UAH 5.3 million and a Swiss Zenith Defy Midnight watch for UAH 310 thousand, incrusted with 11 white diamonds. The gifts were from her father, who obviously did not have such wealth.
This story did not end for the People's Deputy. She still loves expensive accessories. Not so long ago, Kormyshkina received a Hublot watch worth 300 thousand hryvnias from her husband. This is evidenced by changes in her declaration.
In February 2023, Mykhailo Tkach reported that 39-year-old Servant People's Deputy Pavlo Khalimon had purchased a luxury house with a plot of land in the center of Kyiv, near Hryshko Botanical Garden.
The house was officially registered in the name of another person, but journalists managed to find out that it was Halimon who permanently lived in the estate. The seller was Oleksandr Drabynko, a bishop of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The acquisition of an estate by the People's Deputy was also the subject of an investigation by the SAPO.
Interestingly, in 2020, the NABU documented Khalimon for his scams with the land of the Agrarian Academy of Sciences. But then they failed to catch him on bribes due to a leak from the Prosecutor General's Office.
Perhaps the worst was probably for the "servants" in the year of the full-scale invasion, when People's Deputy Oleksii Kovalov, who went to the occupied Kherson region, admitted that he was cooperating with the Russian invaders and supported Russia's annexation of the region. The People's Deputy was quickly excluded from the faction. After that, the State Bureau of Investigation notified Kovalov of suspicion of treason. It was found that Kovalov had held the position of deputy chairman in the illegally created "government of the Kherson region".
In August, Kovalov was found dead in Hola Prystan. A gun registered to Kovalov himself was lying nearby.
The summer of 2023 was really chilli for the Servants because of corruption scandals and other ignominy.
In July 2023, the NABU and the SAPO served a notice of suspicion of undue influence to People`s Deputy Liudmyla Marchenko of the Servant of the People party for trading permits to cross the border. According to the investigation, the People's Deputy and her assistant estimated their "services" at $5,300. When detectives came, Marchenko threw the money over the fence.
The case is currently being heard by the HACC, and Marchenko denies her guilt. At the last hearing, she stated that her assistant had brought her money before. But allegedly, it was not a bribe, it was just that Kolesnik does not have a safe at home, and her preschool child often takes money from the nightstand and spoils it.
When asked why she threw the money over the fence when the NABU detectives entered the house, Marchenko said that she was in a state of shock and did not really understand what was happening.
In August, the NABU detained Anatolii Hunko, a member of the Servant of the People party, for taking an $85,000 bribe to "ticket" those wishing to cultivate the land of the Agrarian Academy of Sciences under the cover of the Verkhovna Rada investigative commission. The case is now being considered in court on the merits. Before becoming a People`s Deputy (and his wife was also the head of the Kyiv Regional Council), Hunko was a lawyer for the scandalous businessman and developer of Brovary, Polischuk, and had a reputation in the local media as a "problem solver of issues with law enforcement agencies".
But the real rating killer for the "servants" was the desire of People`s Deputies to have a nice holiday abroad at any cost.
In July, Slidstvo.info reported that 48-year-old Yurii Aristov, deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defence and Intelligence, was spotted in mid-July at the five-star Waldorf Astoria Maldives hotel on the private island of Ithaafushi, Maldives.
The vacation cost the People's Deputy and former business partner of the President his parliamentary mandate. And after that, he was also served with suspicion for knowingly entering fraudulent information into official documents by an official.
Following Aristov, his colleague Andrii Kholodov vacated his seat, for whom journalists found out that he had gone to Cyprus for quarantine during the Covid-19 pandemic and did not return to the country, but rather built his business there.
However, not all People`s Deputies from the 'servants' vacated their seats. Some were simply expelled from the faction.
For example, Skhemy found out that in July 2023, Oleksandr Kunytskyi, People`s Deputy from the Servant of the People, received permission to go on a 5-day business trip, but stayed abroad for almost three weeks, and, in addition to the place of the business trip, was also seen in Florida, where his relatives lived.
Bihus.Info journalists found out that Bohdan Torokhtii, People`s Deputy from the Servant of the People faction, travelled abroad for holidays during martial law. In March 2023, his wife bought a Mercedes-Benz EQS worth about UAH 7 million.
However, it seems that Mykola Tyshchenko, who went on holiday to Thailand and defended himself by saying that it was a "meeting with voters", was the most scandalous.
Following these scandals, the Presidential Office banned People`s Deputies from travelling abroad.
The summer for the "servants" ended with a scandal involving the purchase of low-quality winter jackets for the Ministry of Defence, one of the suppliers of which was a relative of the deputy, member of the National Security and Defense Committee Hennadii Kasai.
In November 2023, NABU detectives exposed People`s Deputy Andrii Odarchenko on bribery after he offered Mustafa Naiiem, head of the State Agency for Infrastructure Restoration and Development, an undue benefit in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin equivalent to USD 50,000.
In exchange for the money, the People`s Deputy asked for assistance in obtaining funds from the fund for the elimination of the consequences of Russia's armed aggression to repair the university where he had worked before being elected as People`s Deputy.
In court, it turned out that the most scandalous thing was not even the fact that the deputy wanted to "solve", but his attitude towards his hometown and his belief that Kharkiv would not stand.
In a conversation with Naiiem, Odarchenko said that he believes it is necessary to negotiate with Russia: "It's a power, I read a lot, we will be destroyed, Iran and China give them weapons. Why do we need these Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea? We need to negotiate".
In February 2024, the current People`s Deputy Oleksandr Marikovskyi was served with a notice of suspicion by the SAPO prosecutors for a false declaration of cryptocurrency.
The deputy's actions were classified as a crime under Part 2 of Article 366-2 of the Criminal Code ("intentionally entering knowingly false information in the declaration").
On 2 May 2024, the NABU and the SAPO served a notice of suspicion of illicit enrichment to Andrii Klochko, People`s Deputy from the Servant of the People party and member of the Committee on Public Administration and Construction. According to the investigation, in 2020-2021, he acquired assets worth a total of UAH 25 million, however, his and his wife's official income and savings during this period were no more than UAH 14 million. Thus, the difference between the value of the acquired property and the funds of the People`s Deputy was UAH 11 million.
On June 25, based on SBI materials, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine served a notice of suspicion to Mykola Tyshchenko over the unlawful deprivation of liberty of a former serviceman in Dnipro.
Five days earlier, Tyshchenko and his bodyguards attacked a soldier walking with a baby in broad daylight because he had made a comment about carrying a weapon.
It seems to be the tenth filth of the People`s Deputy, after which even his compadre Andrii Yermak disowned him.
It all started in 2020, when, at the midst of the Covid-19 quarantine, journalists found out that Tyshchenko's Velour restaurant continued to operate, serving businessmen, People's Deputies, Kvartal members, and other VIP guests.
This was followed by public celebrations of his wife's birthday during the same quarantine, a fight in the Rada with Leros, the hiring models at the assistants` positions, quarrels with journalists, the already mentioned trip to Thailand, raids on competitors' forestry enterprises and restaurants.
By court order, Tyshchenko is now under round-the-clock house arrest, which he was unable to appeal against in the court of appeal. His associates were also arrested.
On 15 July, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau served a notice of suspicion to People`s Deputy Mykola Zadorozhnii of receiving a kickback from the head of a village council in Sumy region.
According to the investigation, in March 2024, the People`s Deputy asked the head of a village council in the Sumy region to provide an improper advantage for not obstructing the tender for the repair of a water supply system in the Okhtyrka district of the Sumy region.
As the NABU and the SAPO found out, the kickback amounted to 10% of the total contract amount, and another 4% was intended for local law enforcement officers, who were not to be obstructed in the use of the allocated funds.
Before becoming a People`s Deputy, Zadorozhnii, a Sales and Supply Manager, worked at the GB Event by Kvartal 95 event agency.
This article does not mention the filthes of personal correspondence, Halyna Tretiakova's innovative ideas about "low-quality children", Mariana Bezuhla's escapades and flailing around the hall, and other antics that are unlikely to please the party's sane representatives.
According to the latest KIIS poll, 55% of Ukrainians give a negative assessment of the activities of the presidential party "Servant of the People", while only 7% of respondents give it a "very good" rating. 31% of respondents assess the activities of the SP as neither good nor bad. According to sociologists, the "servants" have taken on a negative attitude towards the president's team. However, this is apparently the real result of the activities of some of them.
Today, the faction has 234 members, which is 20 less than at the beginning of the convocation and only 9 more than at the beginning of the convocation, to maintain a nominal majority in the Rada (in reality, it has not existed for several years without the votes of other political parties).
For the sake of objectivity, we note that, according to CHESNO's estimates, at least 54 People`s Deputies have been served with suspicions. However, while the OPFL faction logically received the most suspicions of treason, it is the "servants" who are the leaders in corruption. At least 13 People`s Deputies of the presidential political party were suspected of false declarations, and another 6 were suspected of bribery.
Tetiana Nikolaienko, Censor.NET
