Deputy Head of the Police Investigative Department Yakiv Melnyk "Covers" Conversion Centers and Fraudulent Institutions Through His Mother-in-Law

Deputy head of the Police Investigative Department Yakiv Melnyk "covers" conversion centers and fraudulent institutions through his mother-in-law

Deputy head of the Investigative Department of the Main Directorate of the National Police of Kyiv Yakiv Melnyk owns six apartments registered to front people, a cryptocurrency wallet worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, several bank safe deposit boxes with large amounts of cash, and a residential property. This information recently appeared in the media. "Antikor" was able to trace how the police officer and his wife, a former prosecutor, were able to acquire all this, and which influential figures allow him to remain in his position despite questions about his assets.

Melnyk’s declarations look fairly modest – an apartment in his wife’s name and another for the children, cars registered to his parents, salaries, small amounts of cash, and membership in the Bar Council of the Kyiv region. His wife, Oksana Melnyk, worked as a prosecutor in the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and her declarations are essentially the same as those her husband reported. But through the lawyer–prosecutor social circle, it was possible to find out who might have overseen or may still oversee the couple’s activities.

5 in December, deputy head of the Investigative Department of the Main Directorate of the National Police of Kyiv Yakiv Melnyk took part in the XVII KYIV CRIMINAL LAW FORUM of the Ukrainian Bar Association.

The forum’s general partner was the law firm "EQUITY." Its managing partner is the well-known lawyer Oleg Malinovsky. His profile notes, among other things, the defense of a partner of former People’s Deputy Oleksandr Granovsky in a case concerning the Sky Mall shopping and entertainment center in Kyiv.

Earlier, another prominent lawyer, Viktor Barsuk, was a partner of Malinovsky at EQUITY. He is also closely connected to Granovsky, who for a long time was considered a patron of the prosecutor’s office. In 2016 journalists recorded meetings between Granovsky, Malinovsky, and Barsuk. Moreover, the former deputy even used cars registered to one of the lawyers.

Today Barsuk’s wife is the scandalously famous judge of the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal, Maryna Barsuk, formerly Didichenko, who has vast wealth. In 2021 businessman under sanctions Pavlo Fuks attended the Barsuks’ wedding, and later they were noted at Fuks’ anniversary party in the style of a Venetian carnival.

Melnyk’s participation in an event organized by lawyers close to prosecutor overseer Oleksandr Granovsky could be attributed to the fact that he and his wife are members of the bar association. But it turned out that Melnyk has much more in common with the well-known lawyers connected to Granovsky than mere membership in the organization.

A woman with the same name as Melnyk’s mother-in-law – Olena Kupchuk – from 2012–2013 was the director of LLC Sanhausinvest, whose activity was providing financial services. At that time the company was registered in Kyiv at Bohomoltsia Street 7/14.

This building is located practically opposite the main building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As a source in business circles reported, this building had a notorious reputation in those years.

Building with an office on Bohomoltsia across the street from the MIA

“In a basement premises on Bohomoltsia, right under the noses of law enforcement, a conversion center entrenched itself. Everything that happened there was conducted under the guise of a financial institution. And to increase its influence, they set up the constituency office of the 'regional' deputy Elbrus Tedeev right there. He, by the way, was part of the parliamentary group for interparliamentary relations with the Russian Federation,” the interlocutor says. He insists the deputy’s constituency office opened a huge field of activity for the operators, because by law such a premises cannot be searched or subjected to investigative actions.

“This office is well known in the lawyer community because frequent visitor was lawyer Oleksiy Kucher, who at the time often appeared in the news as a defender of various scoundrels. For example, he defended one of the accomplices in the 'Avakov backpacks' case,” the source adds.

Recall that in 2014–2015 the Ministry of Internal Affairs signed a contract for 5 thousand backpacks, costing almost 15 million hryvnias. According to media reports, the backpacks were purchased through a company controlled by the son of then Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. In 2016 a hidden-camera video appeared in which Oleksandr Avakov discusses the supply of backpacks with Deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Chebotar. Prosecutors argued that the backpacks cost five times more than their production cost. The case involved Oleksandr Avakov, Serhiy Chebotar, and Volodymyr Lytvyn, who was defended by lawyer Kucher. In 2018 the case was closed due to lack of evidence, although the defendants could have faced up to 12 years behind bars.

Lawyer Oleksiy Kucher is from Kharkiv, like the mentioned former interior minister Arsen Avakov. It was in this city’s district that former deputy Oleksandr Granovsky ran for the Verkhovna Rada, later managing to exert influence over the prosecutor’s office. The media wrote that Granovsky ran in Kharkiv to use administrative resources with the help of then mayor Hennadiy Kernes, who allegedly helped resolve issues with criminal cases.

Oleksiy Kucher in 2019 became a People’s Deputy from Servant of the People, then headed the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, and now leads the State Regulatory Service of Ukraine. According to his declaration, Kucher owns 77 bitcoins. Currently their value can be estimated at 7 million dollars, although he indicated only the price at the time of purchase in 2013.

According to media, police officer Yakiv Melnyk also has a cryptocurrency wallet estimated at 400 000 dollars. Melnyk may have been inspired by Kucher on this idea. After all, if one understands the subject well, cryptocurrency on the one hand can help hide incomes, and on the other hand can legalize them.

As the source adds, the office on Bohomoltsia, where Melnyk’s mother-in-law worked, hosted a rather motley company. For example, a company trading in recycled plastic also registered there.

“When Yulia Tymoshenko became prime minister, a tax was introduced for recyclers and waste traders that effectively killed all small enterprises and opened the door only to large companies. Office workers panicked because it became clear that nobody wanted to operate at a loss. Then it turned out that either the security guard or the driver had a brother who worked for Khomutynnik. He then sat on the Verkhovna Rada committee on tax policy,” the interlocutor recounts. According to him, the office workers managed to get a meeting with Khomutynnik, who at the time was considered extremely close to the family of fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych. They tried to persuade the deputy to propose amendments to Tymoshenko’s tax initiative so that the tax for recyclers would remain zero.

“The recycling business and the financial sector overlapped in the Bohomoltsia office. Essentially, the conversion fund operated through them. This was partly supported by seals from Pivdennyi Bank, which at the time was considered a pocket bank. The bank was linked to Granovsky’s business partner Adamovskyi,” the source adds.

Pivdennyi Bank did indeed appear in the case of the mentioned Sky Mall shopping center. Part of the property complex that a businessman close to Granovsky tried to appropriate with the help of lawyer Oleg Malinovsky was moved through this bank.

Until 2021, the police officer Yakiv Melnyk’s wife Oksana worked in the Kyiv prosecutor’s office, which was under the influence of deputy Oleksandr Granovsky. Lawyers close to him intersected in one way or another thanks to the office in the building on Bohomoltsia Street where the woman’s mother worked.

Now Oksana Melnyk works as a lawyer and defends, for example, an official of the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources. This is likely Marina Tishchenkova, who is listed as a defendant in a court case. In 2020 Tishchenkova worked in the Department of Environmental Assessment of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources and was noted for receiving more than 50 corruption protocols.

Sources claim that the wealth and assets of the deputy head of the Investigative Department of the National Police of Kyiv Yakiv Melnyk and his family are in fact many times greater than what appears in the declaration. Since property rights registers remain closed, this can only be proven after they are opened. However, the intertwining of well-known names in one premises right under the MIA’s nose lends credence to the interlocutors’ information — about apartments, crypto wallets, and even cash in bank safe deposit boxes. Especially since the Bohomoltsia office taught how to properly store cash so that, if necessary, law enforcement would not find it – in the deputy’s constituency office within a fictitious financial institution.

Author: Olena Dobrodiĭ