The story of the grabber-deputy Vitaly Sukhovich, who was known for a long time, but turned a blind eye to his transactions

Undeclared wealth worth millions of dollars was discovered by SBI workers from a deputy of the Rivne Regional Council, who is also the deputy chairman of the Polesie forestry office of the State Specialized Economic Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine”.

This position was held by a deputy of the regional council (from the “People’s Party” of Lytvyn, then from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, and now from the “Strength and Honor” party) Vitaly Sukhovich. Law enforcement officers conducted a search at the home and workplace of the grabber deputy and his family members. During the investigation, more than four million US dollars in various currencies were found and seized in cash alone.

In addition, gold coins, gold bars, 2 pistols, and a Kalashnikov assault rifle with 16 magazines and cartridges were discovered. The deputy owned four plots of land in Rivne, on which he built cottages. The plots are registered to nominees controlled by the “chosen one”.

The interesting thing here is that local corruption investigators have already repeatedly written about Vitaly Sukhovich, his company, family cars, apartments for next to nothing and gifts. In January 2020, the prosecutor's office of the Rivne region suspected the head of the regional forestry and hunting department, Vitaly Sukhovich, of making false declarations.

The illegal origin of the fortune was investigated by journalists from the publication “The Fourth Estate” back in 2020. After the publication, Vitaly Sukhovich expressed indirect threats to journalist Anna Kalaur, who at that time worked in the “Fourth Estate”. During a conversation with a journalist who asked about the origin of real estate, a business registered to Vitaly Sukhovich’s ex-wife, a car that belongs to Sukhovich’s mother and connections, the corrupt official, confident in his impunity, said:

Sukhovich was not punished, and NABU, which was responsible for checking the lies in the declaration, closed the proceedings. It was closed not because no violations were found, but because of the decision of the Constitutional Court in October 2020, which abolished liability for lying in the declaration under Article 366-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Below you can read the investigation of the Fourth Estate journalist Anna Kalaur, which was published on June 29, 2020, but which was not taken into account by law enforcement agencies, which allowed the grabber to continue to carry out corruption using his official position.

Company, family cars, apartments for next to nothing and gifts: secrets of the chief forester of the Rivne region

The region's chief forester, Vitaly Sukhovich, and his family, it turns out, lead a wealthy lifestyle that does not fit into the official's declarations. Expensive cars, a house, apartments, a company - something they can boast about and which is very difficult to explain.

In January 2020, the prosecutor's office of the Rivne region suspected the head of the regional forestry and hunting department, Vitaly Sukhovich, of making false declarations. According to law enforcement officers, he provided false information about his wealth worth almost eight million hryvnia. At the same time, the official income of the official and his family did not approach this amount.

Prosecutors were interested in almost 7.9 million hryvnia, which the official’s wife Tatyana Sukhovich contributed to the authorized capital of the Kaisgolts company. This company sells wood that it buys from forestry enterprises. These forestry enterprises are subordinate to Tatyana Sukhovich’s husband. What is this: a possible conflict of interest, illegal enrichment, abuse of influence? The law enforcement statement has more questions than answers.

The “Fourth Estate” investigated the condition, biography and connections of Vitaly Sukhovich and found there many reasons for new checks of law enforcement officers. In this material, we reveal the cards about the lifestyle of the official and his family, connections with the company and connections with influential businessmen.

Friend to everyone

Vitaliy Sukhovich is a famous and influential person in the Rivne region. He is associated with various officials, businessmen, politicians, and the Rivne media practically does not criticize him - there he most often appeared in advertising stories and congratulations.

In addition, he has been a deputy of the Rivne Regional Council since 2014. Then he got on the People's Party list instead of the deceased elected member Nikolai Zinchuk. In 2015, he entered the Rivne Regional Council on the list of the Solidarity BPP.

He has been in the forest industry for almost 20 years. Since 2002 he worked in the Sarny forestry enterprise. In 2009, he headed Vysotskoye Forestry.

In March 2017, the Economic Protection Department of the National Police “exposed” bribery in the forestry enterprises of the Rivne region, where Sukhovich appeared among the leaders of the forestry enterprises. The heads of forestry enterprises, according to the police, chipped in to “hush up” the inspection of violations at their enterprises.

However, the so-called “foresters’ case” rather resembled another PR campaign by the Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov. And it ended, as Stopkor journalists reported, not with suspensions and detentions, but with the termination of that very inspection of forestry enterprises. After this, the position of the chief forester of the region became vacant and, based on the results of the competition, it was headed by Vitaly Sukhovich.

Under the chairmanship of Sukhovich, foresters protested under the regional department of forestry and hunting. They were not satisfied with the personnel changes in the forestry enterprises. They say that Vitaly Sukhovich fired the directors of enterprises and appointed his godfather and brother-in-law in their places. Indeed, under the chairmanship of Sukhovich, individual forestry enterprises changed their leadership. But Vitaly Sukhovich did not see a conflict of interest in the appointments of “his” people.

— Even if the deputy’s nephew, what difference does it make? — Vitaly Sukhovich commented on the situation to Volynskiy Novosti. “He is a good specialist, a positive person.” The director will be chosen through a competition.

Obviously, he was talking about the director of the Kostopol forestry enterprise, Alexander Meleshchuk (formerly an assistant to People's Deputy Yuri Voznyuk), who is the brother-in-law (sister's husband) of Vitaly Sukhovich. By the way, it was the forestry enterprise headed by Meleshchuk that received the title of best in 2018 from the regional forestry and hunting department.

His wife Tatyana Sukhovich also previously worked in the forestry industry. Back in 2016, she was an employee of the Sarny forestry enterprise and at the same time an entrepreneur - she sold fuel and retail in non-specialized stores.

In 2016, Sukhovich’s wife earned more than 300 thousand hryvnia, a large luxurious house was being built. At the same time, the family received charitable assistance from the Vysotsky forestry enterprise. Now this family has millions in assets. And, as is often the case with Ukrainian officials, real estate, luxury cars, and business are owned by the wife.

After the prosecutor's office of the Rivne region suspected the forester of making false declarations, the couple filed for divorce. They explained this by lack of mutual understanding.

Lawyer of the Tisni project (Bihus.Info) Liza Seredina explains for what reasons, besides a mismatch of characters, Ukrainian officials can get divorced.

— In order not to indicate a wife and a bunch of property in the declaration. You can transfer the property to your wife, get a divorce, and there will be no claims against her property. This is done to protect property - so that property and assets are not seized. If, for example, there is a court verdict in the Sukhovich case, his property may be confiscated. And if the property is not in the common joint property of the spouses, but in the hands of the ex-wife, then there are no claims to such property. Such property will not be confiscated.

— In general, even without criminal proceedings, very often all property is transferred to wives/mothers-in-law/relatives. Also, so that there are no questions about where expensive property comes from if you are an official and have been in the civil service all your life,” says Lisa Seredina.

After the trial, Vitaly Sukhovich received one apartment in Rivne, which previously belonged to his wife, and a garden plot near the village of Vysotsk, Dubrovitsky district. The rest: two apartments, a house, three plots - remained the property of the wife.

For three years now, Vitaly Sukhovich has been the head of one of the richest and at the same time most closed areas in the region - forestry and hunting. It is closed, if only because the sale of wood in Ukraine not so long ago took place at standard voice auctions. This is the best case scenario. There are many schemes for selling wood bypassing auctions, for a kickback.

Only recently the Government decided to sell wood through Prozorro.Sales. Forestry enterprises of the Rivne region began to do this in February. What happened before is unknown. That is, who bought what and for how much, how they bargained, it is simply impossible to find out.

The “Fourth Estate” tried to find out the results of auctions in the Rivne region and received illegal refusals to provide carbon-copy information from the region’s forestry enterprises. There were also refusals from the regional administration, the State Forestry Agency and the Rivne Trade Exchange, where these auctions were held. That is, information is deliberately hidden.

In such ideal conditions for various corruption schemes, our forest is being sold. Recently, one of the buyers of this forest was an enterprise, part of which is owned by the wife of the most influential forester in the region. We asked lawyer Lisa Seredina whether this situation contains a conflict of interest.

According to her, in this situation it is impossible to say for sure whether there is a conflict of interest. After all, to do this, you need to clearly know what functions the official performs and whether he has influence on the decisions of the forestry enterprises from which the wife’s company buys wood.

Officially, Sukhovich cannot interfere in auctions of enterprises, some of which are run by his brothers-in-law, godfathers and friends. Law enforcement officers and the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption must find out how this could actually happen.

— According to the Law of Ukraine “On the Prevention of Corruption”, a potential conflict of interest is the presence of a private interest in the area in which he exercises his official or representative powers, which may affect the objectivity or impartiality of his decision-making, or the commission or non-commitment of actions in the exercise of these powers,” says lawyer Lisa Seredina.

— In principle, there may be a potential conflict if Vitaly Sukhovich somehow contributes to making it profitable or convenient for his wife to run a business.

Mom’s Mercedes, wife’s crossover and apartment “On Schastlivoe”: curiosities in Sukhovich’s declarations

After the divorce and division of property, Vitaly Sukhovich received an apartment in Rivne with an area of ​​82.3 square meters. We are talking about housing in the “Na Schastlivom” microdistrict on Chernovola 91-o. The apartment was purchased by Tatyana Sukhovich in May 2018.

A slightly smaller apartment “On Schastlivoe” from the developer is sold for 44 thousand dollars.

Through the agency, a furnished apartment with exactly the same number of square meters can be purchased for 63 thousand dollars.

These are market prices, real prices. But it was impossible for the Sukhoviches to buy real estate at real prices in 2018. Together in a year they earned 1 million 200 thousand hryvnia and (spoiler) they would need this money to explain another worthwhile purchase.

There were no expensive gifts, no bank loans or charitable donations. Therefore, Vitaly Sukhovich convinces NAPC that his wife purchased a new three-room apartment “On Schastlivom” for 139 thousand hryvnia.

For comparison, approximately the same amount (taking into account changes in the dollar exchange rate) - 5 thousand dollars is being asked for an old house in the village of Stolbets. In Rivne, for that kind of money you can only find a garage.

Vitaly Sukhovich refuses to comment on the successful purchase, saying that all questions should be directed to his wife - she found an apartment at such a discount, but he, they say, had nothing to do with it.

We refreshed the arborist's memory.

“You got this apartment after a divorce,” journalist.

- Did I get it?

- Yes.

- Simple apartment. Simple apartment. What is it?

— It seems to us that it is very difficult to find real estate for that kind of money.

- My wife found it. (...) The apartment is not renovated. Simple apartment.

Usually the value of real estate is lowered in order to pay less taxes. All purchases in the amount of 150 thousand hryvnia or more undergo mandatory financial monitoring. It is especially beneficial to underestimate the value of expensive real estate if you buy it with dirty money. Therefore, in the declarations of officials you can often see luxury apartments and cars for approximately 149 thousand hryvnia.

- I don’t know. I didn't buy it. I’ll explain to you, - Vitaly Sukhovich.

- You don't know. Why then did you get it?

- Well, my wife gave it to me. (...) We had... we had a divorce. They determined that she had passed on to me.

Not only Vitaly Sukhovich received the gift, but also his wife. In 2018, on her birthday, Tatyana Sukhovich shared a photo of a car key on Instagram with the caption: “My day.” It is clear from the message that she received a car as a gift, because in the comments she promises to drive it soon.

Most likely, Ms. Sukhovich is driving exactly that Peugeot New 3008 HDi 150 AT6 Allure crossover from 2017, which Vitaly Sukhovich valued in his declaration at 910 thousand hryvnia.

In the photo on Instagram, the woman brags about the gift, but in her husband’s declaration it turns out that she bought it for herself.

Because she could buy it - Tatyana Sukhovich is a businesswoman and earns much more than her husband - since 2018, about a million a year. Vitaly Sukhovich in his declarations is an ordinary boss with a salary of 17 thousand hryvnia. True, even Ms. Sukhovich’s decent income in 2018 would not have been enough to buy an elite car in April and a spacious apartment in May. We ask Vitaly Sukhovich who gave his wife such an expensive car.

— My parents gave it to me (...) Do I remember when who gave it where? - says Vitaly Sukhovich.

- Well, you are an official, right. A car is such an expensive purchase. I think what you should remember is a journalist.

— I explain again, my wife is a private entrepreneur today. He declares his income, pays taxes, and has the right to buy something for himself. You are looking at my declaration. Check my income. (...) What she writes, three years ago or however many years ago, is her right to write, you understand. Who gave it to her? Lover gave it! What's next?

— You don’t have this gift in your declaration.

- Well, what does this have to do with the gift in the declaration? The declaration shows the wife's car. Why isn't it listed? Specified. (...) Given by parents, perhaps by a lover, I don’t know. I won't answer.

At least the first version, given by her parents, is bursting at the seams: Tatyana Sukhovich’s father, Sergei Rudnev, worked as the chief water engineer in Novograd-Volynsky in 2018 and filed a declaration. My daughter Tatyana Sukhovich is there, but my daughter’s gift is not there.

In addition, the father’s income and savings, a total of 270 thousand hryvnia, would not be enough for such a gift. That's why someone in this story is lying.

In addition to the car donated by someone, Tatyana Sukhovich has another one - a 2013 Kia Sportage, purchased in 2014 for 308 thousand hryvnia.

The Fourth Estate also learned that in 2013, the mother of the official, Vera Sukhovich, who does not have a business and previously worked in the Sarny forestry enterprise, acquired a 2013 Mercedes-Benz ML 250 CDI. Now the car is her property.

On a car sales website, such used cars sell for an average of $30,000. However, in 2013, when it was bought, it was the latest model of its class, the price could have been more expensive and the most interesting thing is that the mother of a forester, who worked in the forestry enterprise, bought it and, according to Sukhovich, still hasn’t told him about it .

“I don’t know, I don’t know how my mother managed to earn money for a Mercedes Benz car.” I haven't lived with my mother for a long time. And I don’t know what those cars are there.

— It’s very difficult to find people who can afford to buy a Mercedes Benz at retirement age (my mother was 64 years old at the time) — journalist.

— In 2013, I don’t know what anyone is buying where. I don't know this car at all.

— You don’t know that your mother has a Mercedes Benz?

- Don't know.

These are the kind of miracles that happen.

Tatyana Sukhovich also owned the second apartment “On Schastlivom”. This one is a little smaller - 40 square meters, located in a cottage. We bought it in March 2013, more expensive than the larger one - for 150 thousand hryvnia. Now Sukhovich estimates it at a modest 120 thousand hryvnia.

In addition, after the divorce, Tatyana Sukhovich was left with a house in Dubrovitsa and the land under it. Until 2019, Vitaly Sukhovich declared it as unfinished construction. Two years ago, journalists documented this unfinished construction.

In the declaration for 2019, Sukhovich estimates this house at a modest 560 thousand hryvnia.

The only real estate that belonged to the forester before the division of property was a summer cottage near Lake Bolshoye Pochaevskoye, near Vysotsk, Dubrovitsky district, which he received in 2011. This lake is a hydrological reserve of national importance in Ukraine and the land around it should be protected by the Vysotsky forestry enterprise.

According to the State GeoCadastre, in 2016, land in this area was distributed to ATO participants.

However, the Dubrovitsky district state administration was the first to allocate land here. In addition to the forester Vitaly Sukhovich, the plot was then given to the chief engineer of the Vysotsky forestry enterprise Sergei Gura, and the assistant judge of the Court of Appeal of the Rivne region Igor Shevchuk. Also, Sukhovich’s neighbor was the full namesake of the famous Rivne businessman and owner of the INTER BETON trademark, Yuri Chaborai.

The husband protects the forest, and the wife makes money from it

The Kaisgolts company has existed for two years and is a supplier of pine lumber in Ukraine and abroad. The Kaisgolts website reports on the sale of high-quality wood, which is purchased at official auctions of state forestry enterprises with all documents and certificates.

Well-known players in the market quickly became exporters, in particular the Hungarian company ERDERT TUZSER and the Austrian TIMBER GROUP.

The production of Kaisgolts is concentrated in the village of Remchitsy, Sarnensky district, between four forestry enterprises. The company rents almost two hectares from Sergei Avramishin, the younger brother of the head of the Vladimiretsky forestry enterprise, which he bought from the Rivne Regional State Administration.

"Keisholtz" is located in the middle of a much larger state-owned plot that no one rents.

https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/BvtNwlRXfTTmHM8fED_WCC7t8EtYQahBJuDxrAUnyoW5BR3Ny81h143X-DdIJtL_KlZDGphMDU_GWYfPCKrRuzqODvkGPPje5iADoD-jbsrYhW5WHVANbrJMnxb2bgfb tUt_ljcIRnv9I07QlW8Ja3s

In the Kaisholtz advertisement they write about 7,500 cubic meters of wood per month, 40 employees and 14 years of experience, despite the fact that the company is only two years old.

Let's try to find out where a two-year-old company has 14 years of experience.

Using the official number of "Kaisgolts" you can reach another wood seller, LLC "ERON", registered in Rivne. This enterprise belongs to the ex-founder of Kaisgolts, Alexander Soyka, who until recently was the director of this company. Soyka is a former employee of the Rakhiv district state administration; his family is connected with companies in Rakhiv, Transcarpathian region, which were involved in intermediary in the timber trade.

Soyka and his father are also the owners of Rivne wood selling companies. One of them, LLC E-Rivne, is 90% owned by the Hungarian JSC Erdert-Tuzher, which is the importer of Kaisholtz.

The connections of these companies lead us to Sarny. “E-Rivne” has a premises there, next to the Sarnensky forestry enterprise, where many companies that make money from timber are registered. And businessman from Sarn Andrey Vasilets made millions in profits from Rivne Soyok companies.

Vasilets’ business partner is former tax officer Viktor Shevchuk, who leads us to Vitaly Sukhovich. In his declaration for 2019, Sukhovich indicates that his wife borrowed 7 million hryvnia from Viktor Shevchuk. This is probably how the employee tried to explain the origin of Tatyana Sukhovich’s contribution to Kaisholtz, because it was precisely this point that worried law enforcement officers.

The explanation turned out to be like this, because the contribution was somewhat larger - 7 million 875 thousand hryvnia. That is, Mrs. Sukhovich had to report almost 900 thousand more from her income, because Sukhovich did not declare his wife’s savings.

Another 500 thousand, according to Sukhovich’s declaration, she managed to return to Shevchuk last year. It turns out that Mrs. Sukhovich spent almost 100 thousand more than she earned.

Perhaps there is money left over from 2018? But we already wrote that two years ago Mrs. Sukhovich spent more than 900 thousand on a car and also bought an apartment “On Schastlivom”. Or maybe her husband Vitaly Sukhovich helped? And this is unlikely, because his salary and savings would not be enough to equalize income and expenses to at least zero. What does this mean?

When an official’s declaration shows more expenses than declared earnings, and there are no or no decreases in available monetary assets, this may indicate possible illegal enrichment or that the official is hiding income that he cannot explain. This fact should be verified by the NAPC.

Vitaly Sukhovich says that law enforcement officers are already checking him and asking questions. But it seems that we were the first to become interested in the minuses in the declaration. After all, Vitaly Sukhovich simply began to sort out the options, and when the options ran out, indirect threats to the journalist were used.

“In your declaration, which you filed recently, for 2019, there are less income than expenses,” the journalist.

- What expenses?

- Expenses. Well, do the math: your wife made a big contribution to the company, and...

- Listen, my wife borrowed money and is now working and earning money.

- Even despite this, you have a minus of one hundred or more thousand hryvnia (if we consider that Sukhovich did not give his funds to his wife to repay the loan).

- What are you talking about? What are you saying? (...) Yes you sho, well. Do the math.

- We counted.

- So there were still savings.

- Why then don’t you declare these savings, if they were?

“Or maybe she didn’t tell them to me.”

- So you have to say that you didn’t say it. It turns out that you are not declaring.

- Should she tell me?

- I must.

- Well, what are you saying? Mrs. Anna, look, you think about the fact that somewhere at some wonderful moment a disaster will happen. Trouble will happen... with all your materials, yes, what are you spreading there, that’s it. And they will come and ask.

- Tell me, are you threatening now or what?

- No.

- This looks like a threat.

- It looks like such a thought out loud. Why provide information today if today law enforcement agencies are checking the entire declaration. The prosecutor's office is investigating, NAPC, police, SBU. Do they have the right? They have the right. If there is something, they raise a question.

Vitaly Sukhovich also says that by publishing about him we provide “a lot of information for all sorts of gangs and groups.”

- You open it, every rabble reads what you write there. You know, guesswork. Don’t you think that tomorrow they will write about you and come and ask? It seems to me that they have already visited you.

By the phrase “it seems that you have already been approached,” according to the editors, he meant the arson of the “Fourth Estate” and the theft of the server on which all the materials were contained. The masterminds of the crime were not identified. Suspects of organizing the arson are on the international wanted list. Those accused of arson are being tried.

Lawyer of the Institute for Regional Press Development Lyudmila Pankratova says that Vitaly Sukhovich’s words can be considered an indirect threat to the journalist.

Mysterious Millionaire Driver

Another point is connected with Tatyana Sukhovich’s contribution. Borrower Viktor Shevchuk is also no stranger to Kaysgolts LLC, because his wife Nadezhda Shevchuk co-founded this company in 2018 and invested the most money in it overall - 10 million hryvnia. And she left this business when Mrs. Sukhovich appeared there.

The following happened: Shevchuk, who immediately invested the most money in the company, suddenly left this business and her husband also borrowed money for Tatyana Sukhovich so that she would buy out corporate rights from his wife. These are the kind of miracles that happen.

Together with Nadezhda Shevchuk, Kaisgolts was co-founded by Alexander Soyka and Vladimir Timofeev, also an acquaintance of Vitaly Sukhovich. In 2017, long before Kaisgolts was created, Sukhovich sold his 2008 Toyota Land Cruiser to Timofeev for a symbolic 79 thousand 500 hryvnia. Such a used car costs 25-50 thousand dollars.

Vitaly Sukhovich purchased a foreign car in 2014, but never indicated the purchase price. Perhaps because the modest official income of the head of the forestry enterprise would not be enough for such a car.

The mysterious Vladimir Timofeev is a native of the Donetsk region. Until 2009, he worked at various enterprises. Now he lives with his family in Sarny. On social networks he indicates that he is a driver by profession and shares news from groups of motorists.

Timofeev’s sister Tatyana, in a note dated October 27, 2019, writes that her brother and nephew Evgeniy (son of Vladimir Timofeev) are motorists.

Despite the fact that in life Vladimir Timofeev is a truck driver, according to documents he co-founded Kaysgolts LLC together with Nadezhda Shevchuk. In 2018, his contribution was the largest - 5 million hryvnia. In just two months, he officially went out of business, and in February 2020 he needed a plot for construction next to the Kaisholtz territory.

Timofeev is also connected with the Sarnen figure and president of the Sarnen Greco-Roman Wrestling Federation Boris Tsvyak, who on the same day with Tatyana Sukhovich became the owner of “Kaisgolts”. Tswiak now owns 55% of the company.

Since May, Timofeev’s wife has been a co-owner of the security company Rubikon-2017, which Tsvyak founded with Sergei Avramishin, on whose property Kaisgolts is located. In addition, Timofeev’s son Evgeniy worked at the same enterprise with Tsvyak and even had the same registration address with him.

In addition to Vitaly Sukhovich’s former car, driver Timofeev’s name is registered to one of the most expensive residential complexes in the region, “Luxury Square Sarny,” and a plot of land at Tekhnicheskaya 14 V, where the construction is located.

“Luxury Square” positions itself as a brand of elite quality real estate. The first project was built in Rivne near the “Na Schastlivom” microdistrict and all the apartments have already been sold. The developers are companies united under the trademarks “INTER BETON” and “INTER BUD”.

The owner of INTER BETON, Yuriy Chaborai, is a well-known Rivne businessman; he actually advertised Luxury Square in Rivne as a developer.

The brand “INTER BETON BUD” is registered to the wife of the people’s deputy from the “Servant of the People” Alexander Aliksiychuk; previously it had 14 apartments in “Luxury Square Rivne”.

Chaborai's father-in-law, Alexander Semenov, is the owner of the Budtech-prom company, which built the Luxury Square houses in Rivne and Sarny. Semenov is also a co-founder of the service cooperative “ZHSK Luxury Square Sarny” together with Vladimir Timofeev.

Vitaly Sukhovich says that he doesn’t remember any Timofeev, and completely disowns his wife’s company.

- I don’t know (who Vladimir Timofeev is - author), I was selling to a completely different person. How do I know who it was registered for? Maybe it’s on Petrov, on Sidorov, how do I know. I gave it to my lawyer, he worked on it and re-registered it. I don’t know who it’s registered to.

It is not yet known whether Vitaly Sukhovich’s case will continue and whether law enforcement officials still have questions. In January, immediately after the opening of the proceedings, the prosecutor's office of the Rivne region sent it to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, and from there it quickly moved to the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.

At what stage is it and was the case closed by chance? The SAPS unlawfully does not respond to our requests. Meanwhile, Vitaly Sukhovich feels absolutely confident, so much so that he allows himself to threaten journalists. We are convinced that it is too early to close the case of Vitaly Sukhovich and the facts and statements of the forester that we have voiced should be of interest to law enforcement agencies.

***

It took law enforcement officers three years to become seriously interested in the transactions of this corrupt official.