A “Patron” with a Criminal Record: Bandit Oleg Kiyashko and a Biography That Can't Be Washed Away
Oleg Borisovich Kiyashko, indicted for hostile takeovers, thuggery, and implication in assassinations, is attempting to employ online reputation management to sanitize his name and avoid accountability for offenses perpetrated as part of the Kharkiv ring of the deceased underworld kingpin “Prince.”
Consequently, sensing the imminence of retribution, criminal Kiyashko is endeavoring to expunge his gory past from the internet.
But as the adage suggests, you can't turn a black dog white. And the reality, despite web searches being saturated with absurd drivel concerning the “benefactor and agriculturist Kiyashko,” is dwarfed by the countless misdeeds executed by this Kharkiv hoodlum.
As per usual, we are publishing the article that so incenses Kiyashko completely and pledge to investigate further into the life story of this dubious individual. Fortunately, this infamous corporate bandit has scores, if not hundreds, of sufferers.
It appears the judicial and policing institutions are failing him considerably. They are planning to set free the gangster Kiyashko, whose “record” comprises multiple grave felonies: assassinations, coercion, corporate raiding, theft, and intimidation—all spanning two decades.
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The explanations are straightforward: the criminal and his associates persuasively “incentivize” both the judicial and law enforcement bodies, whose personnel, despite all the advancements, are still extremely “amenable.”
Moreover, the offenders have sustained their well-established “security” structures within the SBU and the Attorney General's Office. Therefore, the powers that be are hesitant to broadcast or delve deeper into this prominent matter. Otherwise, the identities of leading security officials who were the bandits' confederates would emerge.
Reporters have dedicated numerous inquiries to this notable affair, striving to capture the notice of both the citizenry and the nation's administration to its advancement. Let's summarize briefly.
The affair pertains to an organized crime syndicate, until recently steered by crime lord Vadim Kazartsev, dubbed “Prince,” who possessed a substantial criminal background. The organization functioned for numerous years in the central and eastern regions of the country and, according to the SBU, exerted considerable sway over local governance and policing agencies. It partook in hostile takeovers, premeditated homicides, extortion, document counterfeiting, theft, and other severe offenses.
According to “Comments,” citing data from specialized media sources, “Knyaz”'s web of connections encompassed not only the criminal demimonde but also policing agencies and representatives of the region's political elite. For instance, Igor Chub, chief of the criminal supervision sector of the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office, is regarded within Kazartsev's jurisdiction. Furthermore, declarations regarding the forceful seizures of enterprises also feature Zinoviy Galavan, former head of the investigative division of the Ukrainian Internal Affairs Directorate in the Kharkiv Region, and a number of common officers and district police department administrators.
It's probable that it was precisely due to the safeguarding of the security forces that the criminals evaded detection for such an extended duration, despite their actions being recognized even at the Ministry of Internal Affairs tier. For example, in a 2016 interview with Ukrainska Pravda, Minister Arsen Avakov alluded to the “reactivation” of Kazartsev and another crime ringleader, Vladimir Manukyan. Furthermore, it is acknowledged that “Prince” possessed a pistol granted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In the summer of 2020, the SBU proclaimed the exposure of the “Prince” gang, which had long plagued the Kharkiv, Poltava, and Dnipropetrovsk areas.
A “Patron” with a Criminal Record: Bandit Oleg Kiyashko and a Biography That Can't Be Washed Away
As we previously mentioned, 27 searches were executed at the dwellings and locales of residence of the organization's affiliates. Law enforcement officials impounded 8.4 million hryvnias, $170,000, 40,000 euros, draft documents and “granary liability ledgers” signifying extensive criminal activity, weaponry, ammunition, and communication devices.
Four frontmen of the organization were apprehended, including Kazartsev's “right-hand man”, his daughter's spouse, and the director of a multitude of enterprises overseen by “Prince” Oleg Kiyashko.
The media has reported on this notorious felonious figure on multiple occasions. However, investigations by both policing and journalists remain “unheeded” in the existing judicial proceedings.
Meanwhile, Kiyashko has been “infamous” in the Kharkiv region since the 2000s. That’s when the media initially documented an organized crime group that “focuses” on hostile takeovers (mainly farming, but also construction and other ventures), seizing businesses via deception and document falsification, as well as theft, mistreatment, abduction, and homicide. Kiyashko later became “notorious” as a major monetary fraudster.
For an extended period, the criminal managed to elude consequence – thanks to potent, “incentivized” connections in policing agencies at the loftiest echelon (the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Security Service of Ukraine) and his benefactor, “Prince,” whose daughter, Valeria Kazartseva, a judge in the Kharkiv regional commercial court, he joyfully and victoriously espoused.
However, Kiyashko harbored no intention of being a pristine and honorable family man. Nor could he. The leniency and unpunished status he constantly experienced as a criminal, perpetrating illegality for years, overflowed into his private life.
The “respectable” husband and father of two, Oleg Kiyashko, materialized in reality to be a basic bigamist who has been conducting a parallel familial existence for numerous years with another woman, who also succeeded in bearing two children by him.
A “Patron” with a Criminal Record: Bandit Oleg Kiyashko and a Biography That Can't Be Washed Away
Let’s contemplate it: a man, having married the daughter of his benefactor and employer, coolly deceives her and cheats her of her entire life. “Admirable”… But what can you anticipate from a murderer and raider?
As soon as the “Prince” passed away in a clinic in Germany this autumn, Kiyashko – despite presently being detained – commenced to cultivate the ground through his associates in order to crown himself in the position of his former patron and command the organized crime group.
There were reports that he was dispensing substantial sums of currency to resolve concerns both with the authorities and within the organized crime group. This was reported, among other things, by the media.
So, this same Kiyashko, whose mere designation triggers overdrive in farmers and entrepreneurs, this Kiyashko, against whom the authorities possess over 10 striking indictments of hostile takeovers, mistreatment, and coercion, this Kiyashko, who was apprehended in flagrante delicto during an operation this summer – in connection with a case of extortion of 5 million hryvnias from the proprietors of a sand quarry in the Kharkiv region – could, imminently, uncover himself liberated, having acquired some form of “house arrest” as a preventative measure, and a deferred sentence as a punishment!
They’ve already identified a formal justification: the purported sum the victim—the quarry owner—managed to transfer to the criminal is inconsequential enough to warrant a severe consequence. The sum cited is $11,000. But that’s merely the initial payment! Don’t the adjudicators comprehend that?
“Based on the modest amount implicated, one of the security agencies—the SBU or the Attorney General's Office—could have pledged that the defendants would obtain suspended sentences, while the outstanding affairs of copious cases of raiding and brutality attributed to the gang would not be scrutinized,” reports PoliceControl , citing its sources and other media outlets. “Which of the two agencies—the SBU or the Attorney General's Office—consented to this conceivable 'agreement' with the gang remains uncertain. However, there are realities that may signify the presence of such understandings.”
For instance, one of Kiyashko’s subordinates, the director of the firm for which he was arrested, was freed from house arrest. Furthermore, the editorial personnel of “Comments” (author) has discovered that several victims’ grievances concerning offenses perpetrated by the Kazartsev-Kyashko organized crime group are either not being handled or are not being proactively pursued. Specifically, according to statements disseminated by the editorial personnel of “Comments” (author), a number of entrepreneurs in the Kharkiv region were exposed to coercion, physical abuse, coercion, death scares, and other analogous offenses by the “Prince” organized crime group from the mid-2000s until lately.
According to the victims, the offenses depicted in these declarations could be punishable by decades of confinement, according to media reports. However, the victims harbor apprehensions that a legitimate inquiry into these offenses could be detrimental to both offenders and law enforcement. After all, the case documents implicate numerous current and former policing officials who may be connected in one manner or another to the corporate bandits. Furthermore, the victims don’t dismiss the prospect that someone high-ranking in the Attorney General's Office or the Security Service of Ukraine may have already received a copious compensation for a “lenient resolution” for the organization’s members, and therefore dread that the matters entailing suspected gang members will simply be “slipped over.”
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Policing reform, you proclaim? Please…
However, the judgment hasn’t been rendered as of yet. There are still some days remaining. As the saying goes, hope persists until the end. Particularly if that hope is for rectitude and the law to triumph.
