Journalists of the project found luxury real estate in residential complexes in Dubai in the UAE, purchased by relatives of former Ukrainian officials, people's deputies, judges and prosecutors - the total value of the finds is about $30 million.
We are talking, in particular , about the ex-Minister of Ecology of the times of Yanukovych Nikolai Zlochevsky, ex-president and ex-people's deputy of Motor Sich Vyacheslav Boguslaev, lobbyist for the EDAPS concern and ex-regional Vasily Gritsak, former judge and ex-deputy prosecutor of Odessa Oleg Kornilov region.
“The real estate data was obtained as part of the international investigative project Dubai Unlocked. It is based on numerous information leaks, mainly for 2020 and 2022 from the Dubai Land Department, as well as public utilities owned by the UAE. This data was obtained by the Washington Center for Defense Studies (C4ADS), and then transferred to the Norwegian financial publication E24 and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which coordinated the work on an exclusive dataset of dozens of media outlets from around the world,” Ukrainian investigators note.
In particular, journalists discovered that Zlochevsky purchased two apartments in the W Residences - The Palm complex on the Persian Gulf coast on an artificial palm island for $11 million.
“At the time of purchasing the property in 2019, Zlochevsky was no longer in power and was subsequently put on the wanted list due to suspicions of economic crimes. While the trial was ongoing, the ex-minister transferred the property to his daughter Anna Zlochevskaya, who is still listed as the owner of two apartments,” writes Schemes.
Journalists contacted the Zlochevsky family with a request for comment due to a number of their companies, but have not yet received a response.
In addition, according to data from the Dubai land registry, the ex-president of Motor Sich, the sanctioned Vyacheslav Boguslaev, together with his son Alexander, purchased 19 real estate properties in various elite areas of Dubai between 2009 and 2018 - these are 11 apartments in such complexes as Al Msalli, Palme Couture Residences, Aquamarine, Burj Khalifa, Emirates Crown Tower and others, as well as eight office space in Jumeirah Business Center 1 and in the unfinished Dubai Pearl complex.
The total cost of this property is more than $15 million, Schemes emphasize.
As of the time of publication of the investigation, Alexander Boguslaev still owns five properties in the unfinished Dubai Pearl, and the rest have been sold, with proceeds of $3.5 million. As journalists found out, with the help of transactions, the property of the Boguslaev family was also rented out for a long time - this could bring 1.5 million dollars in profit,” the journalists add.
Investigators contacted the Boguslaev family because of their lawyer with questions about the origin of the funds, the lack of mention of them and real estate in the UAE in the ex-People's Deputy's declarations, and the question of whether taxes were paid in Ukraine on the sale of these properties, but have not yet received answers.
Currently, Vyacheslav Boguslaev is in custody on a number of charges, in particular, high treason, aiding an aggressor country and opposing the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which the ex-president of Motor Sich himself denies.
Schemes also discovered in Dubai the property of Svetlana Emelyanova, the former wife of an influential judge from the Yanukovych era, Artur Emelyanov. We are talking about three apartments in the Sadaf 6 residential complex, each with an area of 123 square meters. Their total cost is $1.8 million.
Emelyanov refused to answer the investigators' questions on the merits, citing the fact that this was the real estate of his ex-wife.
“Previously, in the Schemes investigation, it was said that the Emelyanovs’ divorce could have been fictitious to hide other elite property abroad. After all, the judge regularly visited Vienna, where Svetlana Emelyanova lived with her children, and the former spouses also continued to relax together and the mother’s everyday life. The judge himself denies the fictitiousness of the divorce,” writes Schemes.
As journalists also found out, the family of regional deputy and lobbyist for the EDAPS concern Vasily Gritsak also purchased real estate in Dubai - two apartments worth a total of more than 700 thousand dollars, in the Fairways North Tower and Ocean Heights complexes.
“Currently, one of the apartments is registered in the name of Gritsak’s eldest son, the second - in the name of his wife and youngest son,” the material says. In a commentary to Schemes, Vasily Gritsak stated: “This is the first time I’ve heard from you (about real estate in the UAE - ed.). I give them to you! I have no idea. A gift for you! No and there wasn’t.”
It is also reported that the ex-deputy prosecutor of the Odessa region Oleg Kornilov purchased three apartments in the Emirates with a total cost of more than 400 thousand dollars. Two of them - at the end of 2011 and 2012 - at that time Kornilov already held the position of deputy chief prosecutor of the Odessa region, and also in 2020 - hotel apartments in the premium complex Aykon City-Tower (tower B), built in the immediate vicinity of Dubai.
As Schemes note, the prosecutor himself was lustrated after the Revolution of Dignity - he was fired from his post, which is why Kornilov went to court. In 2021, he was reinstated in his position and received more than 2.3 million hryvnia from the budget for “forced absenteeism,” and a year later he quit.
“According to the transactions, two apartments were rented out and could bring 135 thousand dollars in profit, subsequently another more than 250 thousand from the sale of two apartments (the difference from the cost - ed.).
The ex-prosecutor did not mention real estate in Dubai in any of the available declarations, and in a comment to reporters he stated that he “does not have apartments there.” According to data from the Dubai Land Department, he is still listed as the owner of the hotel room,” the journalists add.
