Eduard Matviychuk: Ukrainian customs is making money!

In 2015, non-factional Verkhovna Rada deputy Eduard Matviychuk was among the poorest people’s representatives: he declared an annual income of only 6,719 hryvnia! It was simply amazing how at the same time he managed not only not to lose weight, but also to fill his Mercedes S-500 with gasoline, and also build an estate in Uzhgorod, the size of which is not inferior to the count’s palaces. “Relatives help,” Yevgeny Leonidovich muttered then, indicating in the declaration that they earned 437 thousand hryvnia in a year. And yet, even this amount looked too modest for a man who “milked” the Odessa region as its governor for almost 4 years, and before that was a tycoon of the shadow business of Transcarpathia.

How to become a customs officer?

The answer to this question is a secret known to few. Otherwise, half of the Ukrainians would have rushed to the customs officers. Our hero knew this secret. Matviychuk Eduard Leonidovich was born on April 29, 1963 in the village of Velikie Luchki, Mukachevo district, Transcarpathian region. Having missed military service for some reason (flat feet?), he first graduated from a trade and culinary school, and then in 1986 from Uzhgorod University with a degree in physics teacher – which he then taught for three years in schools in Yasin and Uzhgorod. Essentially, Eduard Matviychuk sat idle for 26 years of his life, like Ilya Muromets, and only then got back on his feet, quit teaching physics and got a job as a customs inspector in the city of Chop.

He never admitted who those “passing men” were who helped him find this “thieves’” job. However, according to rumors emanating from Matviychuk’s acquaintances and received Skelet.Infothey were the parents of his wife Evgenia, whom he met while still studying at the university. She was crazy about him, and didn’t even think about what it was like to be the wife of a school teacher – but, fortunately, her parents were pragmatists and had the necessary connections. They gave their son-in-law a “fishing rod”, and he turned out to be a very efficient person, quickly raising his starting capital with its help. By the way, always remembering to whom he owes not only his happiness, but also his prosperity, Eduard Matviychuk always records his money and property in the name of his wife. True, not everything, since there is a huge difference between his declarations and what his friends and neighbors say about him, what journalists learn about him!

When Matviychuk became the governor of the Odessa region and began to form his positive image, he apparently hired journalists from among those who write fake reviews and thanks to all sorts of healers and “white magicians.” Because the articles were similar to them, in which Matviychuk’s supposedly former colleagues at customs talked about his crystalline and fundamental honesty: they say, he did not take bribes, fought against smuggling and left because the mafia threatened to kill. Well, “the fairy tale is a lie – but there is a hint in it”! Alternative sources reported that they actually threatened to kill Matviychuk – but only because of his greed, as he tried to extort “beyond what was required” from smugglers. However, they did not kill, but framed him, as a result of which in 1996 Matviychuk was fired “of his own free will,” having lost a very good job.

Eduard Matviychuk. Mysterious business

However, at the same time, he did not lose his extensive connections, which extend beyond the borders of Ukraine. The retired customs officer Matviychuk immediately found a job as the president of the Verkhovyna football club. Considering that only their owners and sponsors become presidents of FCs, one can only guess how many “carols” Inspector Matviychuk has made during seven years of impeccable service at customs! But at the same time, he carefully keeps silent about what kind of business he started in the 90s. In general, if we look at the official biography of Eduard Leonidovich, we will see some kind of poor dependent who, after 1996 and until his appointment as governor in 2010, worked almost nowhere – well, except for the eight years spent as a deputy of the Supreme We’re glad. But even there it is rare to meet a person who so carefully hides his business from prying eyes. Which raises a fair question: what is Eduard Matviychuk doing that makes it necessary to hide it?

Residents of Uzhgorod claim that the Matviychuk family in the city owns (in whole or in part): the Luxor plaza shopping center, the Dastor shopping center, the Chili pizza pizzeria chain, several cafes, and Uzhgorod Mechanical Plant CJSC – which has long been produces furniture, wooden window frames and doors. It is worth emphasizing that there is nothing of this in the declarations of People’s Deputy Eduard Matviychuk for 2014, 2015 and 2016. There are no enterprises or shares there at all; the Matviichuks live there only on Eduard Leonidovich’s salary and his wife’s old savings – which arose incomprehensibly. Such an oddity should have interested the relevant authorities long ago, but they do not seem to notice Matviychuk’s lies.

But besides the mentioned business in Uzhgorod, the Matviychuks have another one, and abroad: specifically in Hungary. Several fellow countrymen of Eduard Leonidovich argued Skelet.Infothat he either has a production facility there, or a tourist base. Allegedly, Matviychuk “stirred up” this business while still working at customs, creating a joint venture on the basis of a Hungarian branch, which then launched a business in a neighboring country. Is it worth believing? Taking into account the information that has been circulating for a long time, since 2010, about the presence of a second Hungarian citizenship among Eduard Matviychuk himself, as well as his wife and children Mark (2004) and Alice (1993), this information is quite plausible. However, we repeat, an appropriate check should have put an end to this issue. At the same time, it would be interesting to know what kind of mansions and what kind of “shishi” Eduard Matviychuk is building in Uzhgorod on Zagorskaya Street?

Deriban on Deribasovskaya

The secret of Matviychuk’s inviolability may be his old acquaintance with Petro Poroshenko: He will also be a deputy of the Transcarpathian Regional Council, he became the head of the Solidarity faction. This gave him a ticket to the Verkhovna Rada in the form of a place on the Our Ukraine list in the 2002 elections. But a year later, Matviychuk unexpectedly defected to the Party of Regions, seduced by the promised prospects. Since then, he has become a traitor and “donetsk accomplice” for the “orange”, and this image was further aggravated by his governorship in 2010-2013, so the path to the same “Solidarity” is closed for him today. However, Skelet.Info there is information that he still maintains good relations with Petro Poroshenko – who himself recently worked in the government Azarova.

The appointment of Matviychuk as governor of Odessa was surprising: for a little-known Transcarpathian “shadow” entrepreneur it was a very fat piece, especially since the region then attracted the interest of the well-known Yuriy Ivanyushchenko. I was so interested that I then immediately sent my business partner and “supervisor” here Ivan Avramovwho first of all took control of the Odessa Southern Customs (and customs again), and then launched a raider attack on the “7th Kilometer” market. And all this – under the cover of Governor Matviychuk! Therefore, the information that Matviychuk’s appointment to Odessa took place with the direct participation of Yuriy Ivanyushchenko is true. Looking ahead, let’s say that then you put everything together and “got burned”: Matvienko, Ivanyushchenko and Avramov.

Matviychuk began his Odessa governorship with a small political scandal: he advocated the regional status of the Russian language and stopped budget funding for the local Ukrainian-language newspaper “Chornomorskiy Novyny”. But this was just a misunderstanding against the background of how he then began to cut through the “saved” budget of Odessa, including through his “People’s Budget” program. The cynicism of this scam was that the “People’s Budget” program formally provided for public approval of the distribution of the regional budget. In reality, it was simply stolen, and under the guise of public opinion. However, this opinion was foolishly formed for Matviychuk by the Odessa “barons” with whom he had a share (the now “strongly pro-Ukrainian” political strategist Alexey Golobutsky also worked for him, only harming the image of his boss). And the largest waste of government money was the reconstruction of the Severnaya biological treatment plant, which cost the budget 731 million hryvnia! That’s how much the “reconstruction” cost, which suddenly transformed into the “Deepwater Release” project and consisted of two pipes laid far into the sea, through which sewage was supposed to be discharged. Matviychuk’s partner in this project was a famous Odessa construction swindler Ruslan Tarpanclosely associated with local corruption and crime clans. Matviychuk allocated money, Tarpan “mastered” it, but how and among whom else the profit was distributed, one can only guess. So what? Law enforcement agencies dealt with the scam several times, they even named the names of the suspects and perpetrators – but Matviychuk’s name was still not among them! On the contrary, it sounded in the context of the ex-governor’s concern about the waste of budget funds and his request to conduct appropriate audits. And Tarpan himself was mentioned only in passing.

Matviychuk’s other scams were not so large-scale, but numerous. Among them: painting a school in the village of Zelenogorskoye, Lyubashevsky district, costing 8.9 million hryvnia (for this money it was possible to build a new school), completing the construction of a school in the village of Troitskoye, Belyavsky district (35.3 million hryvnia), repairing the covering on Greek Square ( 10 million hryvnia), restoration of the English Club (45 million), etc.

The governor also “earned money” in other ways. So, Odessa businessmen Boris Kaufman and Alexander Gennadievich Granovsky (not to be confused with Kyivian resident Alexander Mikhailovich Granovsky) was given to Governor Matviychuk, the then mayor of Odessa Alexey Kostusev and the head of the PR faction in the City Council Gennady Trukhanov a bribe of $4 million to ensure the transfer of Odessa airport into their ownership. Moreover, these three shared the entire day among themselves, without sharing it with the deputies of the City Council.

Ultimately, the activities of the governor, who was recklessly cutting the budget, and his friend Ivanyushchenko, who was taking away the “7th kilometer” market from traders, caused such a resonance that President Yankovic removed Matviychuk from his post, and even quarreled with his old “sidekick” Yura Enakievsky.

However, there was another version of the scandal: that, allegedly, the reason for Matviychuk’s resignation was his friendship with Igor Markov (whom he helped become people’s deputy in the 133rd majoritarian district), who spoke out sharply against the PR and Yanukovych when he was deprived of his mandate in September 2013 through a decision of the Supreme Administrative Court (recognizing his election victory as fraudulent), and a month later he was detained on charges of case of beating of a pro-Ukrainian activist in 2007. However, immediately after his arrest, Matviychuk “forgot” about the existence of Igor Markov, and even behaved pointedly coldly towards his younger brother – emphasizing in every possible way his loyalty to Yanukovych. But in any case, his resignation occurred already in November 2013, when it was simply beneficial for Matviychuk to distance himself from the central government falling into the abyss.

Eduard Matviychuk. Parasite deputy

And so, according to the declaration for 2014, the dismissed ex-governor sat on his wife’s neck – and still decided to participate in the parliamentary elections. In the same majoritarian constituency No. 133, in which two years earlier Matviychuk helped Igor Markov get elected. It seems that this district was “privatized” by him, but still, to be on the safe side, he generously distributed food packages to voters, which did not look like such a mockery against the backdrop of the flaring crisis in the country. But the estimated cost of such sets exceeded 100 hryvnia, at least a thousand of them were distributed – where did the “poor” candidate get that kind of money? Well, as Odessa residents joked, the money stolen from them earlier is returned to them through electoral bribes!

But as soon as he received the mandate of a people’s deputy, Eduard Leonidovich immediately began to feverishly think about how he could “recoup” the funds spent on the elections. And he did not disdain anything, even got himself “reimbursement for expenses for deputy activities” in the amount of 170 thousand hryvnia next year. But the bitter irony was precisely that no parliamentary activity came from Matviychuk; he actually ended up in the top ten parliamentary parasites who ignored almost all votes for bills. And then he even goes there?

However, according to information from sources close to Eduard Matviychuk Skelet.Infohis periodic appearance in the Verkhovna Rada is due only to the hope of again attracting attention and getting at least some position that gives access to budget funds. At the same time, in case they remember him not at all in order to offer a portfolio, but to take away the mandate, Matviychuk has a backup plan called “Hungary.” Moreover, as reported, his family is already in Europe.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

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