Member of Parliament Torokhtiy and his wealthy wife risk losing everything: wife lived in luxury and held top positions, husband requested budget aid

Member of Parliament Torokhtiy and his wealthy wife risk losing everything: wife lived in luxury and held top positions, husband requested budget aid

People’s Deputy from Servant of the People Bohdan Torokhtiy, due to a vacation in Bulgaria last year, risks losing his place in the faction. Because he entered parliament via the party list, this could leave him without a seat in the Rada and without protection from mobilization. However, traveling abroad for vacation is only one of dozens of questionable actions by the deputy. Read about what Torokhtiy and his wife are known for, what they own, and how they may have made money in the OBOZREVATEL piece.

Wife — chair of the supervisory board at a state enterprise

Servant of the People deputy Bohdan Torokhtiy has found himself at the center of a scandal. Thanks to an investigation by Bihus.info, he and his wife, an active Instagram user, with their luxury cars, apartments in one of the capital’s most expensive residential complexes, property abroad, and trips outside Ukraine in the middle of the full-scale war, have become a vivid example of injustice. Torokhtiy refuses to resign voluntarily, his own faction has disowned him, and his political career is likely in serious doubt. The 39-year-old lawyer was forced to close access to his social media and is trying to “wait out” the scandal. His wife did the same.

Until recently, Torokhtiy’s wife Alina Levchenko created the impression on Instagram of a well-off young woman busy spending vast sums on resorts, salons, and a flashy life. At the same time, on Facebook Levchenko showed the other side of her life: she worked as an assistant to MP Serhiy Kaplin (from 2014 to 2019, elected from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc), as an adviser to the general director of Antonov (dismissed after a scandal), and she consults the parliamentary committee on agrarian and land policy (the committee of which her husband is a member).

Levchenko also managed to obtain the position of chair of the supervisory board of the Center for Seed and Planting Material Certification and Examination (CSENSM). On behalf of the enterprise she gave interviews and praised the head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, Rustem Umerov, under whose oversight the center operates. Torokhtiy, from 2017 to 2019, before entering politics, worked as legal counsel at the Odesa Grain Terminal, and since October 2022 has been a member of the committee on agrarian and land policy (previously he was a member of the committee on legal policy).

After the agrarian sector drew the deputy’s interest, his wife also moved into this sphere. Alina Levchenko heads the supervisory board of a state enterprise that, among other things, owns thousands of hectares of state land. CSENSM is also known for schemes involving theft of agricultural products and land fraud.

For example, at the end of last year a forensic commodity examination was conducted, which established a significant reduction in the value of agricultural products. The state enterprise transferred land to a private company for use. The same company was sold grain grown by the center. The examination showed that CSENSM sold agricultural products at prices far below market rates.

For example, while the market price of corn was 7300 UAH per ton, the center sold it for 5270 UAH. The market price of sunflower was 19 000 UAH, but it was sold for only 10 200 UAH. As a result, the state enterprise received 3 465 300 UAH less. This likely helped enrich the center’s management.

Alina Levchenko and her assets

As a journalistic investigation showed, in Alina Levchenko’s name the family managed during the full-scale war to purchase three cars — a Mercedes-Benz G400 2020 year, a Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 2022 year, and a Range Rover. Previously Bihus.info also found undeclared valuables of Levchenko.

Interestingly, she herself showed valuables that were not included in declarations on social media. For example, a Bvlgari Serpenti Viper ring worth 20 thousand euros. In comments she calls it her wedding ring, which was placed on her finger on 20 August 2021. That day the couple announced their marriage on social media. The deputy’s declaration does not reflect expenses for purchasing the expensive ring.

She also showed on social media: a Hermes Birkin bag for about 60 thousand euros, a Crivelli ring for 48 thousand euros, a Gaydamak Snake bracelet for nearly 20 thousand dollars, a Manzari fur coat for 9000 euros. In addition, in various years in Levchenko’s Instagram posts one can see such cars: a Mercedes-Maybach W222, Range Rover Sport, Mercedes-Benz G-Class, Mercedes-Benz GLC, several Mercedes-Benz S-Class vehicles, a Ferrari 458 Italia, and others.

On 1 August 2022 Levchenko purchased an apartment of 59 sq. m and a first-floor premises of 283 sq. m in the Valencia Gardens residential complex in Nessebar, Bulgaria, according to the Bihus investigation. According to the Bulgarian property register, the transaction amount was about 59 thousand dollars, although the approximate market value of that property is much higher — about 477 thousand dollars.

In addition, in October 2022, as seen from the registry of court decisions, Levchenko bought an apartment in an elite residential complex in the capital on Mykhailo Boichuk Street, 41-B (with an area of 68,4 square meters) and a garage in the same complex. This is the Novopecherska Tower residential complex. The presence of an apartment did not prevent Torokhtiy from receiving monthly compensation from the budget for housing rent (or a hotel room) in the amount of 19,5 thousand UAH.

Servant of the People faction head David Arakhamia demanded that Torokhtiy return the received housing rental funds to the budget.

Torokhtiy’s wife bought the apartment on 7 October 2022. By then the deputy had already lost the ability to receive housing compensation. Since that time 10 months have passed, he received 195 thousand UAH. And from 2019 he could have received about 936 thousand UAH. Note that a deputy has the right to apply for assistance with renting property if he does not have his own housing in the capital and needs help. Even if officially neither Torokhtiy nor his wife had an apartment or house in the capital, he could have refrained from applying for the payment.

The fight against corruption, abuse of power, and for the rule of law is an important condition for Ukraine to have a chance to fully recover after the end of the war, to bring refugees home, and to become a full member of the EU and NATO. And as long as some officials continue to use their position for enrichment and to obtain special living conditions, changing the situation will be extremely difficult.