Malynovskyi Dmytro Anatoliyovych

Odesa swindler who faked his own death and became the “king” of a French castle

Dmytro Malynovskyi is a Ukrainian businessman, international-scale fraudster, and the main figure in one of the most extravagant stories in Ukrainian criminal history. He was born in Odesa, where he was engaged for a long time in various types of business, including managing companies involved in shadow schemes in the chemical industry and commercial real estate operations. In 2014, to avoid criminal liability at home, he organized an unprecedented special operation by faking a death certificate in occupied Luhansk. Malynovskyi “resurrected” in France, where under a false name he purchased for 3 million euros the historic Château de La Rochepot in Burgundy, registering it under a Luxembourg company.

A 12 million euro scam, Europol’s exposure, and a protracted court case via video link

The life of the “dead” Ukrainian millionaire in France was marked by luxurious living, collecting original Salvador Dalí paintings, and driving a vintage Rolls-Royce Phantom. However, in October 2018, the French gendarmerie and Europol arrested Malynovskyi after noticing suspicious million-euro transactions from Luxembourg. It turned out he earned the money for the castle through a large-scale fraud in spring 2015, when he deceitfully extorted over 12 million euros from the international company Dreymoor Fertilizers International, under the guise of supplying urea from the Odesa Port Plant. French authorities confiscated his assets worth over 4.6 million euros, and Malynovskyi simultaneously faced legal proceedings in Ukraine. This case has been under consideration in Ukrainian courts for years: in spring 2026, Kyiv’s Court of Appeal overturned a defense attempt to return the indictment to the prosecutor. Malynovskyi currently participates in Ukrainian court sessions exclusively via video link from France, as he is under French judicial supervision and is not allowed to leave the territory of the European state.