The suspects in high-profile criminal cases run away, investigators throw up their hands. This could be a summary of what periodically happens with big cases in Ukraine. Dmytruk, Bereza, Arestovych, Bogolyubov, Slobozhenko – this list can be continued, but the point is the same: when cases against certain people become serious, they manage to escape abroad. And no restrictions due to the state of war in Ukraine affect them.
In this research NGL.media will tell about the investigation of the resonant case of a young successful businessman and blogger, Oleksandr Slobozhenko, to clearly show that there are no coincidences and that the punishment system in Ukraine really works selectively. And that if it seems to you that certain puzzles in the case do not fit in – you, most likely, are not wrong.
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So many questions, so few answers
It all started on April 26, 2023. On that day detectives of the Economic Security Bureau (ESB) opened criminal case against the young and successful businessman-arbitrageur Oleksandr Slobozhenko, suspecting him of tax evasion NGL.media described in detail what exactly Oleksandr Slobozhenko and his company Traffic Devils do in a specific material on the link . The opening of the criminal case is not the same as the proof of guilt, so from this moment on, the ESB detectives under the supervision of the Prosecutor General’s Office should have started working on the evidence base. They searched Slobozhenko’s apartment in Kyiv, taking photos of this procedure, which is typical in such cases. However, the law enforcement officers did not publish any press releases or official notices about the searches, as well as about the Slobozhenko case in general, until August 16, 2024.
Meanwhile, Oleksandr Slobozhenko traveled the world, had fun, gave interviews where he openly talked about the criminal case and searches, openly mocking the accusations.
It stopped being funny in the spring of 2024. After the publication of the investigation of UP journalist Mykhailo Tkach about how a 25-year-old businessman has fun abroad, Slobozhenko disappears from the information space, having previously published an hour-long response to this investigation.
The next important date in this story is August 16, 2024. On this day, the ESB and the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that Slobozhenko was handed an official charge of non-payment of taxes for a total amount of UAH 213 million. These publications became the first official information about this case.
ESB published old photos from the searches with Oleksandr Slobozhenko with the news about serving him a notice of suspicion on August 15
In the official ESB Telegram channel, the message about the the suspicion notice was illustrated with photos of Slobozhenko, who, surrounded by ESB detectives, is signing some documents These photos were published by ESB only on Facebook and Telegram. They are not available on the official websites of the ESB and the Prosecutor General’s Office. But law enforcement agencies often publish more photos on social networks than on official websites .
Notification of suspicion means that the investigation has gathered sufficient evidence, on the basis of which the court should make a decision on a preventive measure. Considering the seriousness of the charge, after the suspicion notice was served, Slobozhenko should have been detained, and in the coming days the court should have made a decision on a preventive measure until the final verdict: detention without bail or setting the amount of monetary bail.
But everything went wrong.
On August 21, less than a week after the notice of suspicion was served, according to the ESB and the Prosecutor General’s Office, Oleksandr Slobozhenko was spotted in Warsaw. The photos published by the UP raised natural questions – how could he go abroad after being officially charged with a serious economic crime?
Ukrainian law enforcement officers did not give any news on Slobozhenko’s case until September 2, when the Shevchenko District Court of Kyiv chose a preventive measure in this case – detention without bail For unknown reasons, none of the court decisions in the case of Slobozhenko, including those regarding the election of a preventive measure, have been published in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions, so NGL.media received this information by requests to the court, the Economic Security Bureau and the Prosecutor General’s Office. . On the same day, informing about this court decision, the ESB and the Prosecutor General’s Office, among others, succinctly mention that Slobozhenko is wanted.
This only increased suspicions that Slobozhenko was allowed to flee the country. These suspicions were the reasons for NGL.media to start digging this situation more deeply. Frankly, the answer turned out to be simpler than we imagined.
The lie and the manipulation
According to NGL.media sources, the last time Oleksandr Slobozhenko crossed the border was in the spring of this year. On March 28, he left by Kyiv-Warsaw train and never returned to Ukraine.
Let’s put together the puzzle: the young businessman left Ukraine at the end of March, and he received the notice of suspicion almost five months later – on August 16. He did not officially cross the border in the direction of Ukraine, but he is present on the photos from serving notice of suspicion. How on Earth did it become possible?
Our first version was that Slobozhenko crossed the border unofficially, like, for example, deputy of parliament Artem Dmytruk On August 25, deputy from “Sluga narodu” Artem Dmytruk was served a notice of suspicion for beating a law enforcement officer, after what it was found that he left Ukraine for Moldova on August 23 outside the checkpoints . But we rejected it, because it turned out that Slobozhenko did not bother that much.
It turned out that the ESB and the Prosecutor General’s Office simply manipulated public opinion in order to create the impression that Slobozhenko personally got the notice of suspicion. The day before, on August 15, they did hand over the official notice of suspicion, but not to him, it was given to his relative. And public messages about it that were posted the next day were illustrated with photos from the search of Slobozhenko’s apartment last year. These photos were not published anywhere before, so they were quite naturally perceived as relevant.
So it seems that for some reason the detectives of the Economic Security Bureau, as well as the Prosecutor General’s Office, are falsifying facts, manipulating and distorting reality.
«This is not the information that should 100% be published»
«Under the current law, a person is taken into custody when there is a risk that he will evade the investigation and the court, i.e., he can escape. If a person is suspected of committing a serious crime, when the notice of suspicion is served, the person is either immediately detained, or served with a petition for the election of a preventive measures, and within three hours, no later than the next day, this petition should be considered», – explains lawyer Svitlana Ilnytska.
So, perhaps the ESB detectives hoped that Slobozhenko would return to Ukraine before the preventive measure was chosen and they would not have to explain anything? Or was it a special operation to confuse the Russian Federal Security Service , which, according to Slobozhenko, is diligently hunting him?
NGL.media tried to get a comment from ESB detective Ruslan Kozyura, who submitted a petition to the court to elect a preventive measure for Slobozhenko, but he refused to communicate without an official request to the press service.
However, it turned out that ESB does not see a problem in keeping important information quiet and using misleading photos. At least, this is the conclusion that can be made from the comment of the official spokeswoman of the ESB.
«Regarding the photos. In our message it was not only about serving the notice of suspicion, but also about the fact that preliminary investigative actions were carried out, such as searches [in 2023]. That is why we published these photos – for illustration, – explained in a comment to NGL.media the spokeswoman of the ESB Alyona Matveeva. – Regarding absentee notification of suspicion. This is not information that should 100% be published. Press releases are not official documents, where it is necessary to mention something like an article on which criminal proceedings are being investigated and other details. If a person wants to know the details, we can explain or provide an answer to the request».
Instead of conclusions
Oleksandr Slobozhenko’s criminal case has existed since the spring of 2023, and he has been removed from the military register since October 2022 NGL.media previously wrote in detail about the circumstances of Slobozhenko’s removal from the military register . That is, before the announcement of the suspicion, he could travel abroad without restrictions.The official suspicion was announced to him in absentia, almost five months after his last departure from Ukraine, when it became clear that he was unlikely to come back. Obviously, due to public attention to him after publicity in the mass media, information about the suspicion was submitted manipulatively, without important clarifications and explanations.
The criminal case, which is currently being leading by the ESB, concerns Oleksandr Slobozhenko and his accountant personally The Shevchenko District Court of Kyiv took Slobozhenko’s accountant into custody, and set him a bail of UAH 43.4 million on September 2 . The traffic arbitration company Traffic Devils is now officially owned by other people. Since May 2024, Slobozhenko gave over being the owner of Traffic Devils LLC in favor of 25-year-old Dnipro resident Dmytro Hnitulenko, and Slobozhenko’s mother Iryna Zvir was replaced as director by 22-year-old Dnipro resident Daria Vyshnevetska. In the same period, Vladyslav Stepanets, another Dnipro resident, became the owner of another Slobozhenko’s company, Traffic Devils Agency.
And since the end of last year, Traffic Devils has become a resident of the government program «Diya.City», whose participants have tax benefits and other assistance from the government. So it seems like everything will be fine with Slobozhenko and his friends.
Moreover, four years ago a similar case was opened against Slobozhenko for not paying the taxes, back then it was about 55 million hryvnias. As we reported earlier, the case «disintegrated» at the stage of the pre-trial investigation and the property seized during the searches was returned to him.
Author Kateryna Rodak, editor Oleh Onysko, cover by Victoriia Demchuk, translation Olga Bileychuk