Kyrylo Shevchenko: a raider scheme with River Side and escape abroad

Kyrylo Shevchenko, the former president of the Boxing Federation of Ukraine, who left for Montenegro, figures in a large-scale conflict around the River Side project on the Desna riverbank. According to former Vice President of the Kyiv Boxing Federation Volodymyr Mikulenko, Kyrylo Shevchenko, together with Rostyslav Hrekul and other persons, organized a scheme to take control of the companies, land, electrical capacities and other assets of the project, and the key events occurred in the years 2020–2021.

This primarily concerns LLC “B.M.K.-Building,” which was established to implement River Side with the involvement of Swiss investors. It was around this company, the land assets and corporate rights that the conflict unfolded, later turning into commercial and criminal proceedings. Court documents confirm that LLC “B.M.K.-BUILDING” was a party to a dispute in case No. 908/1487/21(908/1624/21), where claims regarding the property and bankruptcy of LLC “Prozrinnia” were considered, media report. According to Volodymyr Mikulenko, Kyrylo Shevchenko began acting with respect to River Side as early as 2019. Mikulenko names among other participants in the conflict Rostyslav Hrekul, Dmytro Karauchenko and Vitalii Kulyk. According to him, the goal was to gain control over assets that at that time belonged to a group of Swiss investors and to Mikulenko himself. The first notable episode, Mikulenko says, is the story about electricity. In January 2020, he claims, Kyrylo Shevchenko, through Vitalii Kulyk, tried to re-register the right to electrical capacity of 2,5 MW in the name of LLC “River Garden,” which belonged to “B.M.K.-Building.” For this, Mikulenko alleges that documents with forged signatures and questionable registry extracts were used. The conflict then moved directly to the land. According to Mikulenko, Kyrylo Shevchenko and Rostyslav Hrekul established control over land plots on the Desna riverbank near Oseshchyna, where a cottage community was planned. In November 2020, the claimant alleges, registration actions changed control over LLC “Prozrinnia.” The court case materials do indeed include claims regarding registration actions and documents related to corporate and property rights. In particular, a court document dated 24 September 2021 mentions criminal proceeding No. 12020100100007369, entered into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations on a notary’s report about possible document forgery. At the same time, that court document is not a conviction of Kyrylo Shevchenko and does not establish his criminal guilt. The largest asset in this story is land. Mikulenko states that in December 2020 Kyrylo Shevchenko, Hrekul and persons associated with them obtained control over plots totaling 36,05 ha, which were connected to “B.M.K.-Building” and “Prozrinnia.” According to the claimant, documents were used for this whose legality was subsequently contested. At the same time, Mikulenko alleges, Kyrylo Shevchenko together with Vitalii Kulyk gained control of LLC “River Park.” Kulyk was appointed director of the company and the legal address was changed. Mikulenko claims this occurred without his consent, although he owned a 49,25% share. The next stage, according to Mikulenko, concerned the actual withdrawal of the companies from normal business activity. In April 2021, Mikulenko asserts, Kyrylo Shevchenko and Vitalii Kulyk filed for voluntary liquidation of “River Holding” and “B.M.K.-Building.” At the end of that year, according to him, “B.M.K.-Building” accrued creditor debt of 500 thousand UAH, after which bankruptcy proceedings began.

Separately, Mikulenko alleges an operation involving a land plot of 1,96 ha that belonged to LLC “Vyshhorod Invest Plus.” He claims that as a result of that operation Kyrylo Shevchenko received more than 1,5 million dollars in cash, and the company and its participant suffered losses. That amount and the described circumstances are the claimant’s position and must be confirmed by the relevant procedural decisions. After the conflict around River Side, the project, according to public materials, began to be promoted under the name River Garden. Publications about the history of the dispute claim that the land plots were offered for sale despite ownership claims and arrests imposed in the course of the court dispute. Particularly telling is the story with registry documents. Materials published about the conflict give examples where entry numbers, registration applications and real estate objects allegedly did not match one another. The claimants consider this a sign of the use of documents that do not confirm the asserted land rights. These discrepancies became one of the arguments in the conflict around the River Side lands. Another episode concerns the Desna shoreline territory. According to Mikulenko, after control over the land assets was established, fences were erected, in particular on plots of 6,12 ha and 3,189 ha. Publications about the conflict link these areas to cadastral numbers 3221888800:38:140:0920 and 3221888800:38:140:0921. A question also arose publicly about the advertising of the project itself. According to materials on the conflict, the old promo video for River Side, created back in 2014, after the change of control over assets was reused under the name River Garden. Thus, according to the claimants, the new name was effectively overlaid onto the old project around which the property dispute arose. Kyrylo Shevchenko in this story is also mentioned in the context of his ties to Vitali Klitschko. Mikulenko claims that Shevchenko referred to his acquaintance with the mayor of Kyiv and used this as an element of his influence. At the same time, such statements about those ties do not imply Klitschko’s involvement in the property conflict and are not evidence of his participation in the described actions. The River Side story is not limited to a single corporate dispute. It simultaneously involves dozens of hectares of land, corporate rights, electrical capacity of 2,5 MW, several legal entities, registration actions, a bankruptcy procedure and a criminal proceeding concerning possible document forgery. It is precisely the scale of the assets and the number of related episodes that made the conflict around “B.M.K.-Building” the subject of years-long court claims. Volodymyr Mikulenko applied to the Commercial Court of the Dnipropetrovsk Region with a petition to open proceedings in the bankruptcy case of “B.M.K.-Building.” According to his explanation, the appeal is intended to prevent the liquidation of the company and to allow the restoration of the rights of the dispute participants. Against this background, Kyrylo Shevchenko, who left Ukraine and is in Montenegro, continues to appear in public materials about the conflict around River Side. Court documents confirm the existence of a prolonged property dispute and procedural actions regarding the related companies, but final conclusions about the criminal liability of particular persons can be made only on the basis of the results of the relevant proceedings and court decisions.