French police detained former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Sviatoslav Piskun after searching his villa near Nice and discovering 3 kilograms of gold bars, €90,000 ($106,000) in cash, and 18 luxury watches worth over €1 million ($1.2 million), Ukrainian outlet ZN.UA reported on 23 December, citing sources familiar with the investigation.
The detention marks a rare instance of Western authorities acting on Ukrainian anti-corruption requests—and suggests Kyiv is finally catching up with officials who fled abroad with unexplained wealth.
No documents, no explanation
Piskun failed to provide bank documents proving the legal purchase of the gold, customs records for importing the watches, or any explanation for the cash. French authorities have opened a criminal investigation into suspected money laundering and are considering formal charges.
He was later released, but the probe continues.
The 17 December search came at the request of Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation (DBR), which suspects Piskun received bribes to close a 2003 attempted murder case allegedly ordered by oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. French investigators also searched the notary who handled Piskun’s villa purchase—the property itself is suspected of being acquired with corrupt funds.
The Kolomoisky connection
The case centers on the 2003 attack on lawyer Serhiy Karpenko, who was beaten with a metal rod and stabbed multiple times in Feodosia, Crimea, after refusing to falsify shareholder documents for a Zaporizhzhia steel plant in Kolomoisky’s interests. Karpenko survived. Four attackers were convicted, but investigators believe those who ordered the hit escaped justice—until now.
Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky’s commercial interests reportedly prompted murder plot, police say
Ukrainian police charged Kolomoisky with ordering the murder plot in May 2024. The oligarch, who has been in pretrial detention since September 2023 on separate fraud and money laundering charges, denied involvement.
Kolomoisky is also wanted by the FBI for fraud related to real estate in the Cleveland area.
Piskun served as Ukraine’s prosecutor general three times—in 2002-2003, 2004-2005, and 2007—spanning the period when the Karpenko case should have been investigated. He later became a member of parliament for the now-banned Party of Regions from 2007 to 2012.
“Very interesting” documents
According to ZN.UA, French detectives found documents in Piskun’s villa that were “very interesting” but unrelated to the Kolomoisky case, hinting that Piskun’s troubles may extend beyond the Ukrainian case.
The DBR confirmed the search and detention but has not released details, stating it would publish information about the case and next investigative steps soon.
Piskun briefly resurfaced in Ukrainian politics in 2020 when then-Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova appointed him as an advisor, claiming she valued his “experience.” He made headlines that same year for reportedly removing toilets and unscrewing electrical sockets when vacating his state-provided dacha in the elite Koncha-Zaspa district outside Kyiv.
