Did the new head of the anti-corruption bureau help steal an island on the Dnieper?

Before being elected head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, Artem Sytnyk worked in the office of a company implicated in a scandalous scam involving the sale of an island near Kyiv, Kyiv journalists Fedor Orishchuk and Mikhail Glukhovsky reported in an investigation on the Glavkom website.

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In 2011, Artyom Sytnik left the prosecutor’s office. As he wrote in his autobiography, “due to disagreement with the policies of the Yanukovych regime, the criminalization of law enforcement agencies, the curtailment of the fight against corruption...”. From 2011 to 2015, Sytnik worked in the office of a company involved in one of the high-profile corruption scandals in the Kyiv region.

From 2011 until his appointment as head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, Artem Sytnik’s workplace was located in office No. 43 on Vladimirskaya Street, 61/11 in the capital. The law firm “Legal Guarantees” is registered here. Sytnik owned a small share in it. The main owner of the company is ex-prosecutor of the Kyiv region Yuri Gaisinsky, father-in-law of Kharkov mayor Gennady Kernes.

However, Legal Guarantees was not the only company registered at the specified address. According to the database of legal entities of the Ministry of Justice, half a dozen more enterprises huddled within the same walls: Korda LLC, the law firms Astra, Business and Law, STV (liquidated in 2011), and the Columbus company.

The Columbus company has a wealth of experience in relations with law enforcement agencies: its history includes arrests of accounts and criminal investigations. Sytnik, now the country’s chief anti-corruption detective, assures that he knows nothing about Columbus. At the same time, for the office manager of Columbus, such proximity did not come as a surprise, unlike a professional investigator. She confirmed that Columbus is located at the same address as Legal Guarantees.

For former Kyiv Oblast Prosecutor Yuriy Gaysinsky and Sytnyk's partner at Legal Guarantees, the firm "Columbus" is no stranger. Firstly, it shares its office with Legal Guarantees, where Sytnyk himself was based. Secondly, Valeriy Voevodin, co-owner of "Columbus," is also a co-founder of "Legal Guarantees" LLC, the namesake of the law firm where Sytnyk worked and which is also registered in apartment 43 at 61/11 Volodymyrska Street. Furthermore, Valeriy Voevodin is the director of another of Gaysinsky's firms, "Korda," and Nadezhda Voevodina, a partner at "Korda," represented the interests of the firm "Famiy," which purchased Bezymyanny Island from "Columbus." Oleksiy Shekhovtsov also defended Famiy's interests in court . After Sytnik’s departure, he became Gaysinsky’s new partner at the law firm Legal Guarantees.

The connection between the main anti-corruption fighter and the fraud of stealing an entire island in the middle of the Dnieper from the state is obvious. At the same time, 35-year-old Artem Sytnik turned out to be the youngest and one of the most unpretentious candidates for the post of head of the anti-corruption bureau of Ukraine. In 2014, according to the declaration of a successful lawyer, he earned only a little more than 20 thousand hryvnia, that is, he received less than a young teacher who had just started working at a school from the university.

As PolitNavigator previously reported , the new head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine became embroiled in a corruption scandal almost immediately after his appointment.