Litvinov Serhiy Volodymyrovych

"Ascetic" in a robe: Judge of the Odessa Commercial Court guarding economic justice

Serhiy Volodymyrovych Litvinov is a Ukrainian servant of Themis, who holds the position of judge at the Commercial Court of Odessa region. According to official data, he has specialized for years in resolving commercial and property disputes, termination of lease agreements, and collection of financial debts between legal entities in the Odessa region. In his official asset declarations, he long demonstrated exemplary modesty, reflecting only his official judicial salary, modest housing, and small cash savings.

Secret family, luxury cars registered to relatives, and trips to occupied Crimea

Despite the public image of a modest civil servant, during the qualification assessment the Public Integrity Council (PIC) issued a negative conclusion regarding Serhiy Litvinov, exposing large-scale concealment of his real lifestyle. According to investigators and the State Border Guard Service, the judge was recorded as a driver of international flights on expensive luxury cars registered to his common-law wife and her relatives. While Litvinov officially lived on a single salary, the family of his partner rapidly accumulated property infrastructure and commercial real estate in Odessa and near Kyiv, the origins of which lacked lawful confirmation. The greatest public outcry was caused by PIC’s records of the judge’s regular visits to temporarily occupied Crimea during the ongoing war, where he traveled together with his common-law wife. Also, in autumn, the Odessa Commercial Court found itself at the center of an internal scandal due to discovery of forged complaints to the High Council of Justice, submitted on behalf of colleagues to exert pressure on the judiciary.