The reason for the confiscation is that Yanukovych facilitated the Russian Federation in carrying out subversive and terrorist activities against Ukraine and waging an aggressive war. Among other things, he publicly addressed President Zelenskyy with letters about ending the war by accepting the conditions of the aggressor country. The court ruling ends the 8-year-long investigation.
The investigation against Yanukovych lasted with little results until 2019 when the case was transferred to the newly reformed institutions, namely the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, and after the investigation considered by the High Anti-Corruption Court which ruled to seize the property for the state.
In particular, Ukraine was enriched by Yanukovych’s
- Former residency in Mezhyhiria;
- hotel and restaurant complex in Sukholuchka;
- a luxury apartment on Obolon bank of Dnipro in Kyiv;
- parking spaces;
- 31 million UAH and 84,900 USD in bank accounts;
- 100% shares in the capital of “Tantalit” and “House of the Forester” companies;
- 537 cultural values worth 18.7 million euros (books, icons, paintings, antique furniture, clocks, vases, sabers, guns and even a 19th-century cannon).
“It should be noted separately that most of the assets were confiscated thanks to the high-quality work of detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU). From 2014 to 2019, this case was in vain at the General Prosecutor’s Office, until it was transferred to NABU in December 2019. In two years, the detectives were able not only to inspect and initiate the seizure of hundreds of assets on the territory of Mezhyhiria and transfer all the seized assets to the Agency of the search and management of assets but also to achieve the arrest in absentia for Yanukovych and his son, to recognize all assets in Mezhyhirya as a “Complete property complex”, to complete investigation and refer the case to court. And transfer the obtained materials to the Ministry of Justice to prepare a lawsuit against Yanukovych,” Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Center notes.
