"About discounts and books": how Chernyshov denied his guilt in court
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Unity Oleksii Chernyshov was issued a preventive measure by the HACC in the form of a UAH 120 million bail. After the ruling, he stated that he did not plan to resign.
He spent the entire day in court trying to convince the judges that there was nothing criminal in his actions, while his lawyers hinted at media bias. That is why it is worth taking a closer look at the arguments presented by both sides.
However, it's worth starting by recalling that the decision to impose a preventive measure on Chernyshov sparked widespread outrage on social media, as certain concessions were made for the minister from the outset.
He failed to appear in court on the scheduled day, citing a Cabinet meeting.
Pre-trial detention was never considered as a preventive measure for him, only a UAH 120 million bail.
And it's highly doubtful that Chernyshov will be dismissed from the Cabinet, unlike, for example, Solskyi.
Thus, prior to the hearing, the NABU and the SAPO filed a motion with the High Anti-Corruption Court requesting not only that the deputy prime minister be remanded on bail of UAH 120 million, but also that he be suspended from office.
Before the hearing began, Chernyshov stated: "I am confident, confident in my decisions, and I will defend them."
At the same time, his lawyers requested that the hearing be held behind closed doors, but the court denied the motion.
Following the defense’s motions, the prosecutor calmly began outlining the substance of the charges.
According to him, in 2022, Chernyshov signed two orders that facilitated the transfer of state-owned land to a specific company, in return for which Chernyshov received an unlawful benefit amounting to over UAH 14.5 million.
"Furthermore, we are talking about the fact that on September 2, 2022, Chernyshov received an unlawful benefit in the form of an expensive book titled Collected Works of Skovoroda, valued at over UAH 36,000," the prosecutor stated.
According to the evidence presented by the prosecution, developer Serhii Kopystira decided to seize the land plot back in 2021 and began communication with officials from the Ministry of Regional Development. He needed the "Flowers of Ukraine" plot to be taken away through court, after which, through a certain state enterprise, he could sign an investment agreement for it.
At the same time, "Chernyshov instructed his trusted persons to communicate with Kopystyra and Tatarenko (the developer’s authorized representative)."
Specifically, with Horbatiuk. "At that time, Horbatiuk did not work at the Ministry of Regional Development. He was Chernyshov’s trusted person but had full information regarding the specified land plot and its subsequent fate," the prosecutor noted.
"Tatarenko informed Horbatiuk, the minister's adviser, about the need to issue a power of attorney from the Ministry of Regional Development to the director of the state-owned enterprise Sushon to represent the interests of the Ministry of Regional Development on these issues (in court - ed.), which I mentioned. And, accordingly, Horbatiuk, in turn, informed Chernyshov of this fact, who on 1 February 2022 issued the power of attorney with the identical text from the Ministry of Regional Development to Sushon. The extract from the register of powers of attorney is in Volume 2, page 62," the prosecution representative said.
"The correspondence between Tatarenko and Horbatiuk on this matter is in volume 4, page 52. After that, on 1 February, Tatarenko informed Sushon of the fact that he had a power of attorney already signed by Chernyshov, and on 4 February, Tatarenko sent Horbatiuk a sample application for state registration of the land plot," the prosecutor stated.
In other words, as previous hearings involving other defendants have shown, the parties actively coordinated their actions throughout the year through correspondence, sending draft documents, and actual documents as evidence of what was done. All of this is found in the communications between Horbatiuk, Kopystyra, and Tatarenko.
Subsequently, Chernyshov’s associates arranged for the land to be appraised at an artificially low value, which would have resulted in the state losing approximately UAH 1 billion in revenue. Later, this matter was annulled by the High Anti-Corruption Court in a separate proceeding.
"On October 21, Kopystira, Horbatiuk, and Chernyshov met at the Ministry of Regional Development premises at 9 Velyka Zhytomyrska Street to discuss the further implementation of the plan, including the acquisition of the ‘Citygazservice’ LLC for development of the land plot, contrary to the lawful procedure," the prosecutor stated.
The fact that all the defendants were present at the ministry at that time is confirmed both by mobile operator data and by information from the patronage service chat about the meeting.
On November 1, Sushon submitted to the minister a draft order approving the investment agreement with Kopystyra’s company, which had been previously provided to her by Tatarenko. Before transferring to Naftogaz on November 3, Chernyshov managed to establish a working group to implement this order.
For all this, Chernyshov received unlawful benefits through third parties to whom eight apartments on Zabolotnoho Street were registered. These individuals include Hanna Drobot, Yuliia Marchuk, and Sviatoslav Malashko. "Chernyshov involved his adviser, Maryna Medviedeva, in organizing the registration of these apartments," the prosecutor reported. Medviedeva worked with Chernyshov both at the Ministry of Regional Development and at Naftogaz — "she was his personal assistant and handled matters related to his leisure time, family and household issues, and helped his family."
Hanna Drobot is married to Viktor Drobot, on whom Chernyshov’s wife had issued a power of attorney for a Skoda car. Sviatoslav Malashko is connected to Chernyshov through the cooperative "Soniachnyi Bereh"; in particular, Chernyshov received assistance from this cooperative amounting to over UAH 5 million in 2019–2020, and in 2022, Inna Yatsyk joined the list of founders of this cooperative. Malashko is married to her sister, Nina.
In addition, Inna Yatsyk is acquainted with another apartment owner, Drobot, and they traveled abroad together. Yuliia Marchuk and Drobot issued powers of attorney to the same person — Oleh Vatarenko.
Correspondence containing documents of all three owners is found in the chats of Medviedeva and Kopystyra.
Furthermore, one of the apartments was sold to Ms. Shemchyshyn, who in her correspondence with another person mentioned certain flaws and expressed discomfort about approaching Chernyshov’s wife regarding these issues. Solomiia Shemchyshyn is the daughter of Svitlana Chernyshova’s university colleague.
Eight apartments were registered to Drobot, Marchuk, and Malashko, for which they collectively paid UAH 900,000. They received a discount totaling UAH 14.5 million.
Chernyshov’s lawyer, Oleksandr Tananakin, stated that there is no evidence of conspiracy or negotiations in the case.
"These are merely unsubstantiated investigations that currently lack any proof... Therefore, there can be no talk of a coordinated plan," the lawyer said.
Chernyshov himself also insisted that he acted strictly within the law and that his task was to return the rightful land.
"It is obvious that I was supposed to transfer it (the land -ed.note) since the Ministry is responsible for policy formation, to the relevant state enterprise that was designated — this enterprise being the state-owned Ukrkomunobsluhovuvannya. Obviously, the events of 2022 relate to the full-scale invasion. The Ministry of Communities and Territories also deals with construction issues, housing construction, and providing housing for internally displaced persons," Chernyshov stated in court.
The minister also assured that he issued the orders based on court decisions. However, he forgot to specify why the texts of the orders were agreed with the developer.
"Attention. I have not received, will not receive, and do not plan to receive any discounts. These apartments and investment agreements do not personally interest me. I have no need for them and never did. From what I see, these people signed agreements, and there is an appraisal of that price. I understand that they did not buy apartments per se, but investment opportunities related to apartments that are either under construction or at some stage of development. To emphasize, I derive no benefit from this. I do not control these apartments or the investment agreement objects, nor do I have the means to control them," Chernyshov said.
"Moreover, I don’t even know where these properties are located—I have never been there in my life.
And frankly, I don’t plan to be there," the minister added.
It is also necessary to separately quote his explanation regarding the rare edition of Skovoroda.
"The third category of the discount. Certainly, I really like that in this case, the book of the eminent Ukrainian philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda is involved. And we also understand that every month, to some extent, we all use or gift books to someone or receive them as gifts. As they say, a book is the best gift. Obviously, on the eve of my birthday, I could have received some books because colleagues know that I respect that very much. And I always advocate for such very modest things," Chernyshov stated.
"As for this book… I had no idea where it came from at all. And I would like to say that on my birthday, I could have received several books of various kinds, some even more valuable, as I already mentioned...Hryhorii Skovoroda is a well-known Ukrainian philosopher, but this concerns a single volume of a certain four-volume set, which, even as a gift, is of no use to me because it is just one chapter of the collection," the Minister of National Unity expressed some frustration.
"So it turns out that the accusation boils down, as they say, to discounts and books. That is the book and the discount. That’s what the minister received, and that’s what he is being accused of," Chernyshov emphasized.
Next came a lengthy tirade in which Chernyshov claimed he entered the ministry from the business sector to fight corruption, insisted that no land plots were lost, and portrayed himself as a hero who replaced the corrupt State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate with the State Inspectorate of Architecture and Urban Development of Ukraine.
He also assured that business trips are a routine part of his work.
In contrast, the prosecutor argued that Chernyshov’s family has sufficient funds to go into hiding.
That Chernyshov’s mother and sister currently reside in France, which means he has social ties in other countries.
And that although Oleksii Kuleba now heads the Ministry of Regional Development, Chernyshov may still have access to the ministry’s documents.
"In this ministry, documents relevant to the case are stored, and obviously, if Minister Kuleba is absent and Mr. Chernyshov is performing his duties, he will have the opportunity to somehow destroy or alter documents located within the ministry during the period he acts on behalf of Minister Kuleba," the prosecutor stated.
As evidence of such actions, he mentioned that after Chernyshov’s associate Volodin was searched and his mobile phone containing chats with the minister was seized, Chernyshov enabled disappearing messages on that chat.
Additionally, the prosecutor pointed out that Chernyshov is connected to many high-ranking officials, given the positions he has held and currently holds. Therefore, he might influence the investigation.
To be honest, with such a list of concerns, an arrest is usually requested. However, Chernyshov was only subjected to bail of UAH 120 million. Now it will be interesting to see who will post it, since the minister’s own funds may not be sufficient.
Tetiana Nikolaienko, Censor. NET
