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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The Kyiv Court of Appeal left unchanged the acquittal verdict concerning the 59-year-old head of the charitable foundation "Kharts," Yurii Yeriniak, known as the so-called "authoritative businessman" by the nicknames "Moldovan"/"Yura Moldovan," who was accused of illegal arms trafficking (part 1 of article 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
This was reported by the publication "Detective.Info."
The corresponding verdict, the text of which was published in the open part of the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations in early July of this year, was handed down by a panel of judges presided over by Halyna Balatska and including judges Iryna Horb and Olha Zhuk.
Given the absence of mentions of a cassation appeal in the case on the "Judicial Authority" portal, this represents a legal confirmation of the failure of law enforcement attempts to hold "Moldovan" accountable in a case that arose from the intentions of domestic powerholders shortly after the Euromaidan events to carry out another redistribution of spheres of influence among the beneficiaries of the country's largest gas production company. In that process, the main focus of the investigation was on establishing the circumstances of the February 2012 kidnapping of the then general director of PrJSC "Naftazkhyvobuvannia," now Member of Parliament of the 9 convocation, Oleh Seminskyi. Persons suspected of involvement in the brazen crime were repeatedly "piled on" with additional criminal cases.
As previously reported on the pages of Detective-Info (detailed in the piece "Naked pistols"), one of the most prominent figures of this saga turned out to be Yeriniak. "Moldovan" was accused of involvement in armed robberies, banditry, extortion, and kidnapping (but not in the episode of the "stolen Oleh Seminskyi"), and in the autumn of 2015 the indictment against Yurii Hryhorovych and his accomplices was sent to court.
The case then stalled for a long time, which cannot be said of the numerous support groups and bodyguards of former "colleagues in the trade" from among the accused, between whom at that time a "black cat" ran. Primarily it concerned a conflict between the founder of "Kharts" and the authoritative president of the Handball Federation of Ukraine, Andrii Melnyk, nicknamed "Dlinnii." In October 2018 they organized a large-scale brawl and nearly wrecked one of the courtrooms in the Solomyansky Palace of Justice in the capital.
Behind the scenes of the fierce fights and mutual insults, an important legal fact somewhat receded into the background. In the summer of 2019 it became known that the prosecutor had changed the charges against Yeriniak and company. From the motley list of allegations against "Moldovan" for committing especially grave violent crimes, law enforcement narrowed their claims exclusively to illegal arms trafficking (part 1 of article 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The case concerned pistols and ammunition for a "Glock 19" and a "Browning," found at Yurii Hryhorovych's estate on 14 March 2015.
Yeriniak insisted that these "guns" had been planted on him by the same law enforcement officers who, during the "search," allegedly stole 23 thousand dollars of the Kharts leader's savings.
On 23 January 2020, as previously reported on the pages of Detective-Info, the trial court of first instance acquitted "Moldovan" in the case of the "naked pistols." After that the proceedings were sent to the appellate Palace of Justice, where its review lasted six years.
On 25 February 2021, on Yeriniak's birthday, law enforcement officially reported charges against him and four other figures in the scandalous story of the "stolen Oleh" (former transport minister and multi-term MP Mykola Rudkovskyi, member of the Zakarpattia Regional Council Stepan Derkach, Andrii Shykora known as "Karate Practitioner," and Melnyk — "Dlinnii") on suspicion of involvement in the organization of the 2012-year kidnapping (part 3 of article 146 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), torture (part 2 of article 187 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and extortion (part 4 of article 189 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) of 200 million dollars from the former general director of PrJSC "Naftazkhyvobuvannia." Since then "Moldovan" has de jure been wanted (including internationally); attempts by Yurii Hryhorovych's lawyers to have the suspicion lifted have so far been unsuccessful.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Суд виправдав керівника фонду «Хартс» і авторитета Юрія Єриняка за обвинуваченням у незаконному обігу зброї". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: HAB Media.
