Extortion, a deadly car crash, and million-dollar assets sold for junk: MP Suto Mamoyan cleans the internet of his dark past

People’s Deputy Suto Mamoyan, it is reported, is actively trying to purge the internet of mentions of his activities, elite assets, and ties to law enforcement agencies. Publications about criminal investigations, information from declarations, materials related to real estate and cars, as well as information about Mamoyan and his family’s connections to law enforcement officials and influential figures are allegedly gradually disappearing from the web.

We, for our part, are publishing the investigation that is so troubling to Mamoyan and sheds light on his dubious assets, ties to law enforcement, and influence schemes.

As the Telegram channel “Ukrainskyi Obozrevatel” recently reported, Suto Choloyovych Mamoyan, a deputy from OPZZh, will soon try to push “his” person into the leadership of the SBU in Zakarpattia region.

And here the question arises — who is Suto Mamoyan that he has the ability to so decisively influence the appointment of Security Service of Ukraine heads in key regions of the country? After all, we have four hundred and fifty deputies, but not all have the weight to influence the SBU. And he is a deputy from the opposition. Let’s try to figure this out.

Suto Choloyovych Mamoyan was born in the year 1981. By nationality he is Yazidi (this detail is provided only to explain his name and must not be interpreted otherwise). He is a People’s Deputy of Ukraine from OPZZh, listed at number 33 on the party list. In 2015 he was a deputy of the Poltava Regional Council from Serhiy Kaplin’s "Party of Ordinary People." He lives in the Makariv district of Kyiv region. Education — secondary. That is — school and that’s it. But that did not prevent Suto Choloyovych from becoming a first-rank civil servant, as People’s Deputies are. However — the people’s choice. Moreover, having a university diploma in modern Ukraine means only one thing — the person has money. So it’s unclear which is better — honestly saying you never went to university, or showing a bought diploma. And the lack of higher education is, against the backdrop of Mamoyan’s other “feats,” a mere trifle.

Before we move on to describing those feats, recall that the deputy’s father — Cholo Ashoyovych Mamoyan — is a businessman, founder of several food companies. His younger brother, Serhiy Mamoyan, was a deputy of the Poltava Regional Council from the Social Democratic Party in the previous term. In the past, 2020, he became a deputy of the Kyiv City Council from OPZZh.

Another relative of the deputy — Rustam Sutko (he adopted this surname instead of the family name "Mamoyan") — oversees the activities of the State Bureau of Investigation within the Prosecutor General’s Office. Rustam’s wife, Natalia, was directly connected to Rinat Akhmetov, having worked in his companies, namely LLC “Stadion Shakhtar” and “Donbas Arena.” Natalia’s biological father, Volodymyr Kovalevskyi, held the position of head of the National Agency for EURO-2012 preparations.

Now a bit about the “feats” of the man who was not yet a People’s Deputy. Suto Mamoyan has a criminal case in his biography. And, while most of his colleagues appeared in purely economic crimes, Suto Choloyovych is a simple man — in 2007 the police detained him for forcibly putting the instructor of FC Dynamo into his Mercedes with an accomplice, beating him, and demanding one thousand dollars. The case under the articles “Extortion,” “Robbery,” and “Forgery of documents” languished in investigation and courts until 2013, when it suddenly “turned out” that the friends hadn’t beaten anyone but had defended a stranger girl whom a bad man from “Dynamo” had sold an old mobile phone to as if it were new. And the relative in the Prosecutor General’s Office only helped establish the “real” circumstances of the case.

In addition, in 2009 a criminal case was opened against Suto Mamoyan for an accident that resulted in a death. According to the case materials, on 21 August 2008, Suto Mamoyan, driving on the highway at a speed of 139 km/h, collided with a minibus, as a result of which the minibus driver died from his injuries. But here too the court showed leniency — the person found guilty of the accident, Mamoyan, was given a non-custodial sentence. He received a two-year probationary period.

None of this prevented the OPZZh congress from including Suto Mamoyan on its electoral list, and voters gave that list enough votes for Suto Choloyovych to receive a parliamentary mandate. And almost immediately he became the subject of a new scandal. Whether it was poor education, a cruel joke played by the lack of common sense, or a failure to understand that he became a public figure and should have at least considered that — it is unknown. But People’s Deputy Mamoyan submitted, like other civil servants, a declaration of his income. And he listed a small car fleet of three vehicles: two Toyota Land Cruisers 200 and a Mercedes Benz G63. The purchase of new prestigious cars by newly elected servants of the people no longer surprises anyone.

But Suto Choloyovych managed to surprise even experienced colleagues and journalists. Judging by his declaration, he bought each Land Cruiser at the price of beaten-up Tavrias — each cost him 20 000 (twenty thousand) hryvnias. That is — 800 dollars. The Mercedes inexplicably cost much more — 3 900 000 hryvnias.

To understand the real cost of a Toyota Land Cruiser, no special effort is required — just go to AUTO.RIA, where even a burnt Land Cruiser costs half a million. Not to mention undamaged models a year old.

Also, on 27 June 2019, Suto Mamoyan became the owner of two apartments in the capital in the “Zarichnyi” residential complex on the Dnipro’s bank, with areas of 124,7 and 125,1 square meters. According to the declaration, he bought them for 500 000 hryvnias each. Although the market price (and that is by no means a secret) for such properties is 1 200 dollars per square meter. It’s not hard to calculate how much the People’s Deputy cheated the state by multiplying the apartments’ square footage by the real value.

And so it is no surprise that Mamoyan was among those deputies who petitioned the Constitutional Court to declare criminal liability for lying in declarations unconstitutional.

There is another interesting story linked to Mamoyan’s cars — one of them was used in June 2020 by a person who was pursuing former Health Minister Ulana Suprun.

Suto Choloyovych also distinguished himself in the capital’s nightlife. During quarantine, when ordinary people were being rounded up on beaches by police and harshly fined for not wearing masks in the woods, Mamoyan partied with his colleagues in the company of lively girls and the thief-in-law Nodar Rustavskyi (Nodar Asoyan) at the “Queen” club:

According to media reports, Suto Mamoyan is the one who ensures a quiet life for Nodar Rustavskyi. The deputy allegedly pays 500 thousand dollars a month to top Interior Ministry leadership so that law enforcement officers do not notice the well-known thief-in-law on Ukrainian territory.

Which, agreeably, is striking.

Especially against the backdrop of the deputy’s declaration, where he indicated that in 2019 year he earned 1 186 485 hryvnias, that is approximately 44 thousand dollars. Or the fee for eleven days of peaceful life for his influential friend. By the way, one million hryvnias from that “income” was “gifted” to him by his mother, Gyavaz Badrivna Mamoyan, a pensioner. Perhaps savings from past years help — Suto Mamoyan declared 2 300 000 dollars, 2 600 000 hryvnias and 340 000 euros.

And, since relatives of the People’s Deputy are already being discussed, it’s worth mentioning that his father, Cholo Ashoyovych, is implicated in the scandal around the development of Poshtova Square.

He owns two "Kompot" cafes on that square and he (together with his entire family) participated in attempts to build a shopping and entertainment center on the site that would have destroyed all unique archaeological finds. However, in May 2019 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine granted Poshtova Square the status of a national archaeological monument, which somewhat curbed the appetites of developers. But the story of the mall construction is far from over — criminal case No. 12015100120001272 on the attempted destruction of the monument, which was led by the Podil district prosecutor’s office and repeatedly featured the name Mamoyan, was taken over by the Prosecutor General’s Office. There, as you recall, works Rustam Sutko. The one who abandoned the family surname Mamoyan and is the brother of Suto Choloyovych. And the son of Cholo Ashoyovych. And after Suto became a People’s Deputy, the family’s positions were significantly strengthened. So we await further developments in the development story.

We are also awaiting the People’s Deputy Suto Choloyovych Mamoyan’s declaration for the year 2020, the submission deadline for which expires in a few days. It will be interesting to see what car and what apartment he bought last year. And how much they cost him this time.