Interim Measure for Kyrylenko: UAH 30 million Bail and Duties Imposed

On August 28, investigating judge Oleksandr Voronko imposed an interim measure on Pavlo Kyrylenko, a suspect in unlawful enrichment, — UAH 30 million in bail. 

In addition, Kyrylenko, in the course of the next two months, will be obliged to:

• arrive upon the request of the prosecutor, the court;
• report a change of place of residence;
• wear an electronic control device;
• surrender the passport;
• remain in Kyiv;
• refrain from communicating with witnesses.

What happened at the hearing on August 28? 

This was the first hearing to impose an interim measure on the head of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, the stream of which was allowed by the court. 

Actually, it was today that the defense counsel finally has begun to give its comments. From the start, the attorney assured that there was no corpus delicti in the actions of Kyrylenko. Allegedly, he did not give his mother-in-law, to whom the property was registered, any orders to purchase it, but bought it for the legitimate savings of his mother-in-law’s family. The defense called the conclusion about the value of the property unjustified. The fact that Kyrylenko’s wife participated in the acquisition of property with registration to her parents is considered by the defense to be a typical practice of “parents helping children.” 

The prosecutor asked to stop the defense counsel because he allegedly stalled the hearing, but the judge sided with the defense. The latter also stated that Kyrylenko could not hide from the investigation because his life was in danger, there was an attempt on his life, and his financial condition reaches only UAH 3 million. 

Then the witness, Oleksandr Matiyenko, the father of Kyrylenko’s wife, was interrogated. According to him, everything was bought with the money earned by him and his wife. Allegedly, he did not want the money earned over the years to just be idle—the trade in raspberry alone brought Matiyenko USD 300,000. So, the money was invested in 4 apartments and 4 parking spaces in Uzhhorod. Subsequently, Kyrylenko’s in-laws also bought an apartment in Kyiv. 

In total, Kyrylenko’s in-laws had about 10 apartments; in addition, the father-in-law was constantly purchasing cars and bought a residential house. He explained the purchase of the apartments in the Obolon Plaza residential complex by the desire to wait for the increase in real estate prices to sell them later.  

Although the prosecutor asked the court to take Kyrylenko into custody with bail of UAH 120 million, the defense counsel believed that the interim measure should, firstly, be mitigated, and secondly, the bail should be reduced to an amount ranging from 20 to 80 subsistence minimums, that is, from UAH 60,000 to 242,000. 

In general, Matiyenko and his wife earned the money on their own, and that’s because “a friend in need is a friend indeed.” In 1991, Matiyenko inherited some property, and he had a business together with his friends—buses and taxis, and besides, he was engaged in trade and had money exchangers; that is, he earned on currency exchange rate increases. In the end, Matiyenko did not want the money to just be idle, so he and his family learned about the new developments in Uzhhorod and bought 4 apartments and 4 parking spaces.  

Matiyenko mentioned Heorhii Shabayev, a journalist of the Skhemy project (Schemes), who wrote about all this real estate; allegedly, he was the one who “started it all,” but did not want to meet them. 

Interestingly, at the beginning of the interrogation, Matiyenko asked to speak Russian. The judge allowed him to switch to another language, but the defense counsel thought it concerned him too, so he asked questions in Russian while the prosecutor conducted the interrogation in Ukrainian. By the way, Matiyenko addressed the prosecutor in Russian and in an inappropriate form, but the judge did not pay attention to this. 

In the end, the prosecutor asked to apply detention against Kyrylenko with bail of 40,000 subsistence minimums, namely UAH 121.12 million.  

Although Kyrylenko did not participate in the purchase of all the property listed during the hearing, his wife dealt with it, which they had covered a lot in their conversations. Moreover, it was Kyrylenko who determined when his wife could use the car, which had been purchased at the expense of the Kyrylenko family.  

Thus, Kyrylenko is charged with acquiring assets worth UAH 62 million (which is 56 million more than allowed by law). The prosecutor mentioned that, following the example of MP Dmytruk, Kyrylenko could also easily leave the territory of Ukraine. The prosecutor is also convinced that the head of the AMCU could influence the witness and mentioned consultations with Judge Bortnytska regarding the destruction of evidence.  

The defense counsel believes that the motion for detention indicates pressure on Kyrylenko so that he can help with the investigation, so he asked to deny it. Kyrylenko himself said that he could not hide in the temporarily occupied territory and recalled that he had no property in Crimea, although he did not mention the likelihood of leaving Ukraine.