How the head of the State Migration Service of Kyiv and a friend of the sanctioned oligarch Fuchs, Vyacheslav Guz, earns millions of dollars by legalizing Russians

Vyacheslav Guz, head of the Central Interregional Directorate of the State Migration Service of Ukraine in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, has a fairly modest income - up to 60 thousand hryvnia per month.

However, he somehow manages to drive expensive foreign cars, live in elite residential complexes of the capital, take his girlfriend, fashion model Inna Gudz, travel abroad and attend luxurious parties of his friend, Russian oligarch Pavel Fuks.

Even during his work at the State Migration Service in the Kharkov region, Guz was subject to accusations of illegal enrichment when issuing foreign passports, and today, under his leadership, the capital’s migration service department issues passports and residence permits in Ukraine for Russian crime bosses.

How Dmitry Lemesh, Vyacheslav Guz’s deputy, was caught taking bribes when issuing Ukrainian documents to Russians

In the summer of 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine red-handedly detained the 45-year-old deputy head of the Central Interregional Directorate of the State Migration Service in Kyiv and the Kyiv Region, Dmitry Lemesh, when he received a bribe of 10 thousand dollars. According to the investigation, the official systematically received illegal monetary rewards from Russians and citizens of the Middle East and Central Asia for their legalization in Ukraine. The SBU suspected that these people, to whom Lemesh sold residence permits in Ukraine, could have been recruited by Russian intelligence services to carry out subversive activities in Ukraine.

During the searches, more than 100 thousand dollars and almost 13 thousand euros in cash were confiscated from Dmitry Lemesh. The court chose a preventive measure for him in the form of bail in the amount of 2.5 million UAH, which Lemesh, an official with a salary of several thousand UAH per month, easily paid, being released during the investigation. However, as a result, no one deprived him of his freedom: two years later, the prosecutor’s office closed the criminal proceedings against Lemesh due to the expiration of the pre-trial investigation. In other words, for some reason the SBU did not bring the case to court, which in the end returned to the official the 2.5 million UAH he paid as bail. So Dmitry Lemesh, who probably could have assisted the Russian intelligence services during its full-scale war against Ukraine, remained unharmed - today he continues to work as deputy head of the State Migration Service in Kyiv and the Kyiv region.

A logical question is brewing, maybe two. Who helped resolve the issue of freedom for Dmitry Lemesh? And could he, being the deputy head of the Kyiv department of the State Migration Service, take bribes without the knowledge of his leader?

Is Vyacheslav Guz selling Ukrainian passports to Russian crime bosses?

The head of the Central Interregional Directorate of the State Migration Service in Kyiv and the Kyiv region is Vyacheslav Guz. With Dmitry Lemesh, they both come from Kharkov. Until 2018, Vyacheslav Guz headed the Main Directorate of the State Migration Service in the Kharkov region, and Dmitry Lemesh was his deputy - head of the department for foreigners and stateless persons. When Guz moved to Kyiv in 2018, he immediately “took” Lemesh with him. That is, we can safely state that they “worked well together” in Kharkov, and that Lemesh is not a random colleague for Guz.

Back in Kharkov, Dmitry Lemesh came to the attention of anti-corruption officials when, with his salary of 150 thousand hryvnia a year, he bought himself a brand new Toyota Camry for 1 million UAH, a valuable Romain Jerome watch, cryptocurrency and received cash gifts of 300 thousand UAH.

Vyacheslav Guz himself did not lag behind. He headed the migration service of the Kharkiv region in the turbulent year of 2014, when he was still a deputy of the Kharkiv City Council from Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party. Perhaps it was precisely his belonging to this political force and his closeness to its leader, whom Guz met with white roses under the hospital, that became the reason for his appointment.

Already in 2015, local Kharkov activists from the public organization “All-Ukrainian League of Lawyers Against Corruption” literally “screamed” about the dominance of corruption in the State Migration Service, which was “occupied” by dozens of intermediary firms that sold for money the services of easy registration of foreign passports, residence permits, citizenship and so on. One of the activists even sued Guz because the State Migration Service in Kharkov refused to issue him a foreign passport for the statutory amount of 170 hryvnia, imposing the services of intermediaries on him. And he won: Guz was fined 12 thousand 180 UAH.

And this, you see, is a very funny punishment for how much Guz earned from the total and systematic sale of the migration service for processing documents. But this seems to be just the tip of the iceberg. Of course, you can make good money by issuing foreign passports, which, judging by the real property status of Vyacheslav Guz, is what he does. But more on that a little later. But the truly significant “leftist” migration workers make money from the legalization of foreigners. Dmitry Lemesh is a clear confirmation of this.

According to media reports, the legalization scheme today looks like this: first, the State Migration Service refuses Russian citizens to obtain a Ukrainian passport, after which the applicants file lawsuits against the migration service, which, in turn, recognizes the actions of migration officials as illegal and obliges them to issue a passport. The State Migration Service, in turn, is in no hurry to file appeals, as a result of which it grants Ukrainian citizenship to Russians, as if absolving itself of responsibility - after all, the court obliged.

It was under this scheme that a Ukrainian passport in the name of Kovalenko Andrian Mikhailovich was received by Andrian Rodin, a Russian crime boss nicknamed “Half-Beast”, a member of the Rostov criminal group of Ded Khasan (close to Putin), known for the fact that, according to bihus.info, in his house lived the Deputy Head of the National Police of Ukraine Dmitry Tishlek. It is precisely under this scheme that another member of this group, Asoyan Nodari, is suing the State Migration Service today.

The Mezha publication, in its investigation, published a video recording of a conversation of a person very similar to the head of the State Migration Service in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, Vyacheslav Guz. The video shows that this person is likely using drugs and says the following:

“When I came from Kharkov to Kyiv to work, the “thief” told me that if some kind of crap happens, it might happen that they put me in jail, and you’ll have to introduce yourself to the “hut” from me. I have given them so many documents that if this appears somewhere, I will definitely introduce myself to him... If he is ready for 150 (probably thousand dollars - Ed.), I will give him reasons, we will collect his database of relatives, then - according to standard procedure, served through a “hamster”.

That is, a person similar to Vyacheslav Guz shares that he provides Ukrainian documents to certain “thieves” for money. And it sheds light on the scheme itself, which also involves the registry office, which likely enters non-existent people into its databases, who are then passed off as relatives of the applicants. If you have relatives, there is a reason to issue a residence permit or even a passport.

In the unified register of court decisions there is a whole list of claims against the capital's State Migration Service Vyachelav Guz, in which all applicants claim that they would like to surrender their Russian passport, but cannot do this due to the fact that the Russian embassy in Ukraine does not work, and they cannot go to Russia they can't. Therefore, formally, the courts make decisions obliging Vyacheslav Guz to issue documents to the Russians.

According to this scheme, according to media reports, Guz has already issued a Ukrainian passport to Salikh Hasanov, a member of the criminal group of Ded Khasan, included in the NSDC sanctions list. Now, according to new documents, his Ukrainian name is Alexander Musolimovych Artemov, and thus this person no longer has any problems with the National Security and Defense Council. In addition, Anna Vladimirovna Evseeva, a Crimean woman included in the “Peacemaker” database, who collaborated with the Russian occupiers and helped them conduct the so-called “elections,” also received Ukrainian documents from the Kyiv State Migration Service. Another Russian who Guz helped to legalize in Ukraine is Alexander Yuryevich Yashin, who previously had the last name Shchiptsov, a member of a Russian criminal drug syndicate. And this is probably not a complete list.

We cannot say with 100% certainty that the video published by Mezha with the participation of a person very similar to Vyacheslav Guz is reliable. But a characteristic fact: Guz did not refute or at least deny this information, although journalists provided him with such an opportunity several times, submitting requests for information to his State Migration Service department. He didn't answer any of them. It seems there is nothing to say to this.

How Vyacheslav Guz manages to live in the most expensive residential complexes in Kyiv and drive luxury cars

This can be confirmed by the lifestyle of Vyacheslav Guz, which does not at all correlate with his official earnings in the State Migration Service. Officially, he is an ordinary official with a rather modest salary, who owns only an apartment of 113 square meters in Kharkov among his property. His salary in the period from 2018 to the present day varies from 38 thousand in 2018 to 61 thousand UAH per month in 2023. For a non-local person to live in Kyiv, this is very little money, because in addition to his household expenses, he also needs to rent housing.

Which is exactly what Guz is doing, today renting an apartment in Kyiv with an area of ​​87 square meters from Tatyana Viktorovna Pakhomova. Guz does not indicate at what price in his declaration. And he does this, it seems, for a reason. Because Tatyana Viktorovna Pakhomova is his niece. The apartment in which the head of the Kyiv department of the State Migration Service lives is located in the elite residential complex Jack House on Lesi Ukrainki Boulevard, 7B. Considering the cost of apartments in this residential complex is on average $2,000 per square meter, this apartment could cost Guzya’s niece $174,000. This despite the fact that her parents are ordinary doctors. Mother Alina Pakhomova is an associate professor of the department of fundamental general scientific disciplines of KhNMU, an ophthalmologist and pediatric ophthalmologist at the consultative and diagnostic clinic of the university clinic of KhNMU, and father Viktor Pakhomov is a traumatologist and orthopedist.

According to journalists, in 2018, this apartment was accepted not by Tatyana herself, but by her legal representative Starikov Vladimir Nikolaevich, because Tatyana Pakhomova was already living in Boston in the USA by that time. In addition to purchasing an apartment, Starikov acted as Pakhomova’s representative when purchasing a non-residential premises with an area of ​​9.5 square meters in the same Jack House residential complex for $14,250.

Now let’s focus on this Vladimir Starikov. His mobile phone number in the GetContact application is associated with a number of signatures indicating a direct connection with Vyacheslav Guz. Namely “Vladimir the driver of Guzya”, “Vova the guard of Khar Migrationka”, “Vova the driver of Slava and Inna”. From these signatures of Starikov’s number in the phone books of subscribers it follows that Vladimir Starikov is the driver of Vyacheslav Guz and, probably, was registered as a security guard in the Kharkov department of the State Migration Service for some time.

That is, what picture emerges: the daughter of doctors, who studies and works in the USA, buys an apartment in an elite residential complex in the center of Kyiv for almost 200 thousand dollars, but it is arranged by the driver of her uncle Vyacheslav Guzya, who then lives in this apartment, as if renting it for an unknown price. Agree that it is very likely that Vyacheslav Guz is the real owner of this apartment, and his niece is here only as a diversion. A relative with a different last name - how convenient.

Through another representative, Gleb Nenko, who is closely connected with Vladimir Starikov, and therefore with Vyacheslav Guz, in 2021 Tatyana Pakhomova was also planning to purchase another apartment in another elite residential complex Taryan Towers in the Pechersky district of Kyiv. But most likely something changed during the purchase process, and the deal did not come to fruition. However, the presence of Pakhomova’s notarized power of attorney in the name of Gleb Nenko with the wording “for the purchase of an apartment in the Taryan Towers residential complex” indicates that at least another 300 thousand dollars were planned to be legalized through real estate for the girl, which, we repeat, does not happen in Kyiv and Ukraine.

The story with the niece’s apartment is far from the only one on the account of the main migration officer of Kyiv and the region. And this is not the first such rented apartment. As soon as Guz moved to Kyiv in 2018, he began renting a rather large apartment of almost 133 square meters in the Izumrudny residential complex on General Shapovala Street 2 from a certain Yulia Sergeevna Klyuchko, co-owner of the online clothing store JUL & JUL. According to documents, Yulia Klyuchko purchased this apartment in October 2018, that is, Vyacheslav Guz became its first tenant literally immediately after purchasing the apartment. The cost of this apartment, according to prices per square meter in this residential complex at that time, can reach 300 thousand US dollars.

The chief migration officer in Kyiv also rented from Klyuchko a 2012 Audi A8 car worth about 55 thousand dollars. My girlfriend bought it in October 2019. And as soon as I bought it, I immediately leased it to Vyacheslav Guzy, because it appeared in his declaration in 2019. Interesting, isn't it? A girl of model appearance, who has a small business, literally spends about 350 thousand dollars in a year on purchasing a large apartment in an elite residential complex and no less an elite car, and immediately rents it all out to Vyacheslav Guzy. Can you imagine what that must be like in a landlord-tenant relationship? Considering that it was in 2018 that Guz separated from his common-law wife Ekaterina Polezhaeva, it is likely that Yulia Klyuchko at that time could have been his girlfriend, in whose name he registered his property, which he could not officially “shine.”

Before Audi, allegedly Yulia Klyuchko, the head of the Kyiv department of the State Migration Service, according to BlackBox OSINT, drove a 2017 Mercedes-Benz GLE 250. It was driven by his driver Vladimir Starikov, whom Guz took with him from Kharkov. This car was purchased new at a dealership in 2017 for $80 thousand and registered to 58-year-old Tatyana Ivanovna Gritchina, who at that time was registered as a sole proprietor who cleaned houses.

Tatiana Gritchina is the mother of Victoria Yuryevna Gritchina, who since 2015 has been working as deputy head of the department of the Department of Citizenship, Passportization, Registration and Emigration of the State Migration Service of Ukraine in the Kharkov region. That is, she was a subordinate of Vyacheslav Guz. And, apparently, another person close to him, in whose name he probably registered his property.

Victoria Gritchina herself, with a salary of 7,600 UAH per month at that time, used a 2015 LEXUS NX300H car worth about 50 thousand dollars, which was similarly registered in her mother’s name. This condition is not bad for the mother of a mid-level official. She herself probably walks, while the head of the State Migration Service department and his subordinate drove her foreign cars for free. Yeah.

Remember the saying about “once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern”? So, the pattern is that throughout his entire career in the State Migration Service of Ukraine, Vyacheslav Guz, as if officially having nothing, constantly rents housing and cars, without ever indicating the amount of his expenses on them. Considering the size of his official income, he had to spend it all on just this. And even more. And every time the rental of this property raises many questions regarding its authenticity.

In 2020, Guz rented another 2012 Audi A8 from Viktor Viktorovich Tokarenko. In 2023, he replaced it with a 2008 Subaru Outback, and again Viktor Viktorovich Tokarenko acted as the lessor. Just a car dealership man.

But that's not all. In the declaration for 2022, Guz included a 2008 Toyota Land Cruiser 200 and indicated which he was using for free. Who is this benefactor? The car belongs to the public organization “Defender 2022”. The head of this public organization from its founding on September 6, 2022 to February 2024 was... that's right, Vyacheslav Guz. This car, according to our data, was imported into Ukraine in a simplified form without customs clearance, probably as humanitarian aid for military purposes and was registered on September 13, 2022. That is, exactly a week after Guz registered the NGO, he brought a car to Ukraine under the guise of humanitarian aid, which he helped... himself. It is noteworthy that no information about any public activities of this organization could be found in the public domain, which may indicate that its creation was fictitious only to carry out such schemes - importing cars under the guise of “humanitarian aid” or something similar.

In general, the picture is as follows: Vyacheslav Guz lives year after year in expensive apartments in elite metropolitan residential complexes and drives expensive foreign cars worth millions of US dollars, which, taking into account all of the above, is very similar to a scheme for the legalization of shadow super-income. Which, as we have already understood, is not difficult to obtain from the migration service.

Vyacheslav Guz's entourage, during his tenure as head of the Central Medical Migration Service of the State Migration Service in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, acquired 5 expensive cars and three apartments in elite residential complexes in Kyiv - as a result, Guz himself uses all of this. BlackBox OSINT Infographic

How the relationship with Guz contributed to the material success of fashion model Inna Gudz

Indicative in this context is the material growth of Vyacheslav Guz’s new common-law wife, Ukrainian model Inna Gudz, with whom he has been in a close relationship since approximately 2020. According to our data, before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, they vacationed abroad together several times: Guz and Gudz celebrated the New Year 2021 together in the Dominican Republic, the May holidays in Dubai in the UAE, and in August 2021 they went to Bodrum for 2 weeks in Turkey, and in September we traveled to France and Switzerland. All this for a salary of 43 thousand hryvnia per month, which Guz received that year. Well, or his model took him around the seas and oceans for her fees for filming.

Perhaps the same fees brought Inna Gudz an apartment of 55 square meters in the elite residential complex “Boulevard of Fountains” on Sapernoe Pole Street 5 in the Pechersky district of Kyiv, which she acquired just after the start of her relationship with Vyacheslav Guz on November 9, 2020 for no less than 230 thousand US dollars. A year later, in 2021, Gudz became the owner of a new 2021 Volkswagen Passat, which costs 45 thousand dollars. And already in 2022, the common-law wife of the main migrant of Kyiv also received ownership of a parking space in the same residential complex “Boulevard of Fountains”, which costs from 28 to 45 thousand dollars.

Vyacheslav Guz did not declare all this, although he was obliged by law, because with Inna Gudz, to whom he, although not officially married, has a common life, and therefore must include information about her property status in his declaration. But don’t “spoil” with all this such an “exemplary” declaration of an ordinary official who has nothing, and everything is rented for only a small salary.

Friendship with oligarch Pavel Fuks. Is Guz connected with his activities against Ukraine?

Another joint trip that Guz and Gudz made together took place after martial law was introduced in Ukraine: on October 24, 2022, after crossing the Polish border, they flew to the UK, from where they returned on November 6. On what basis Guz crossed the border is unknown, but, according to journalists, in London the chief migration officer of Kyiv and the Kiev region and his companion attended the birthday celebration of the famous Russian-Ukrainian oligarch Pavel Fuks, who was included in the NSDC sanctions lists.

Vyacheslav Guz, together with Inna Gudz, were guests of the birthday party of the sanctioned Fuchs even before the war in October 2021, when Fuchs celebrated it on a grand scale in the village of Kozin near Kiev, where Russian performers Arthur Pirozhkov and Svetlana Loboda flew from Moscow to entertain the oligarch and his guests. Then the head of the capital's migration service, clearly in a state of strong alcoholic intoxication, admitted to journalist Mikhail Tkach that he was on friendly terms with Fuchs.

It is unknown when and under what circumstances they became friends, but it is possible that on the topic of legalizing Fuchs in our country. Fuchs moved to Ukraine in 2014, when Guz headed the Kharkov department of the State Migration Service. Considering that Kharkov native Pavel Fuks was a close friend of the late mayor of Kharkov Gennady Kernes, it is possible that the connection could have been established through him.

Western media, citing their sources in American intelligence, reported that Pavel Fuks, before the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, organized sabotage in Kharkov: according to Rolling Stone, Fuchs, through intermediaries, paid residents of Kharkov from $500 to $1,500 per painting Nazi graffiti on houses, which was supposed to create for Russia before its invasion of Ukraine the “correct” information background about the “Nazification” of Ukraine. Allegedly, Fuchs had no choice but to disagree with this proposal from the FSB, which set a condition for the oligarch - either cooperate or lose all your assets in the region after the seizure of Ukraine. Pavel Fuks’ activities in the interests of the Kremlin were reported earlier, when he was accused of schemes to withdraw money from Ukraine by Viktor Yanukovych’s entourage. Moreover, according to journalists from the “Schemes” program, Fuchs still has business interests in Russia related to the family of another odious character in Ukraine – Andrei Portnov, against whom US sanctions have been imposed.

In the context of the legalization of Russian citizens and Russian crime bosses in Ukraine by the Kyiv migration service, can Guz’s connection with Fuchs be not only friendly, but also “professional”? Could Vyacheslav Guz be one of the elements of Fuchs’ cooperation with Russian intelligence services, in which he helps to legalize Kremlin agents in Ukraine? I would like the Security Service of Ukraine to answer these questions. But to the question whether Vyacheslav Guz earns shadow excess profits from the sale of migration service services and the legalization of foreigners in Ukraine, the answer seems to be obvious.

As an afterword, we can only add a screenshot of Vyacheslav Guz’s comments under one of the publications on the Telegram social network about his activities in selling passports to Russian criminals who may be involved in the work of the intelligence services of the aggressor country. Guz again does not deny the disseminated information, which clearly bothers him very much, so he only resorts to obscene language and threats. Very typical.