Konstantin Kulik. The military prosecutor who deceived the whole of Ukraine

As practice shows, someone fights for the country, and someone gets rich during this war. The military prosecutor of the ATO forces, Konstantin Gennadievich Kulik, is a prominent representative of the corruption-clan system that has shrouded the whole of Ukraine. The “hereditary prosecutor”, thanks to his connections, opened all the doors to career growth for himself, and also accumulated a serious fortune. Kulik’s story is about how to fool the country and emerge victorious.

From nowhere to military prosecutors

Finding general biographical facts (born, studied, married, divorced) of Konstantin Gennadievich turned out to be very difficult. One gets the impression that this man was born in August 2015, after he headed the newly created military prosecutor’s office in the ATO zone. Let us recall that the military prosecutor’s office previously had three regional military prosecutor’s offices – Western, Central and Southern, and the military prosecutor’s office in the ATO zone became the fourth.

He owes his position to ex-Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin (Read more about him in the article by Viktor Shokin. Prosecutor “on vacation”), who signed the order to create a military prosecutor’s office in the ATO zone, and the chief military prosecutor of Ukraine Anatoly Matios. Tolik the thermal imager (Matios’s nickname after the incident with the assassination attempt on Viktor Shokin, when he stated that the sniper was shooting at the windows of the Prosecutor General using a thermal imager), in his usual manner of exaggeration, called Kulik a highly professional career military man. He also added that Konstantin Gennadievich spent a year in the ATO zone as head of the military prosecutor’s office. It is not clear for what merit this position was received. After all, Kulik has nothing to do with military service; he has never served it anywhere. Moreover, before all this rigmarole with military posts, our hero sat in the chair of the prosecutor overseeing compliance with laws in the transport sector of the prosecutor’s office of the Kyiv region, and even earlier – in the Nikolaev region. And the most interesting detail is that as soon as Matios receives his appointment, Konstantin Gennadievich becomes a “colonel of justice” (usually it takes 15 years to get to this position or does not get it at all). Like Vladimir Zherbitsky, Tolik’s deputy, the thermal imager, for whom Kulik worked as an investigator on particularly important cases. Why such privileges and strange coincidences? It’s simple – the big boys have broken through to power.

It turns out that Matios is Kulik’s “family friend.” Konstantin Gennadievich’s father and Matios’ grandfather worked for the NKVD in Western Ukraine in the 50s. After the collapse of the system, Kulik Sr. became the prosecutor of the Kharkov garrison. In 1995, the leadership of the General Prosecutor’s Office wanted to appoint him military prosecutor of the Western region, but did not dare. The reputation was not very good. This is how the Matios and Kulik families are still friends, pushing “their” children to power.

Konstantin Gennadievich’s promotion was not hindered even by the fact that he was associated with Evgeniy Zhilin, an ex-Kharkov police officer and the current leader of terrorists in the Oplot organization. In 2000-2001, Kulik and Zhilin, then still the leading operative of the Organized Crime Control Department of the Kharkov region, investigated a case of economic fraud committed by a criminal organization. At that time, the corresponding article 255 had just appeared in the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and the case was sent to court. A wonderful story about highly moral investigators. Only there is another side. Kulik and Zhilin, as valiant “law enforcement officers” who were part of permanent investigative teams, in the 2000s were engaged in another interesting case – the banal protection of “envelopes” for cash. In Kharkov there was a company called “Elephants”, known only in narrow circles, since its activities were associated with financial fraud. So, only the tax authorities were interested in what the “Elephants” were doing, when two people rushed to the rescue – Kulik and Zhilin. They seized documents, helping the investigation, but thereby blocking further proceedings and tax audits. Law enforcement officers also worked effectively to neutralize competing firms. Fortunately, the situation was suitable and made it possible to destroy a cash-out competitor without a twinge of conscience.

Then the men’s paths diverged, Kulik left for Kyiv in 2004, and Zhilin remained in Kharkov. During Euromaidan, the views and positions of former friends on the political situation were clearly defined, and a big quarrel occurred. However, this did not prevent Kulik from maintaining contact with Zhilin and his family during his tenure. This is evidenced by the fact that the prosecutor drove through the ATO zone in Zhilin’s father’s car. But, most likely, this is a small thank you from Zhilin’s family for the fact that Konstantin Kulik’s apartment was collateral for a loan of 15 million hryvnia taken from Finbank by Evgeny Zhilin’s company “Veltorg-2013” ​​in 2014. The loan money was used to finance titushkas at Euromaidan, but according to the documents, they simply disappeared. The issue of Konstantin Gennadievich’s collateral real estate remained open, but dealings using forged documents took it out of the collateral property register and sold it to others. The meaning of this financial scam is as follows: the money from the loan was cashed out through Zhilin’s front companies, the main collateral was sold using forged documents, then bought back, some money was released to the titushki, and the rest was divided between Zhilin and Kulik. Proof of this scam can be considered the fact that at the end of May 2014, a “small” amount of $700,000 appeared in the account of the future military prosecutor. It was transferred by him as a loan to an employee of the Khreschatyk bank, citizen Tisovskaya. By the way, in 2014, Konstantin Gennadievich’s apartment in Kharkov was arrested in connection with this criminal case. He tried to get her out of arrest through the court, but it didn’t work.

By the way, it was only in 2016 that NABU became interested in the friendship of the Kulik and Zhilin families. They haven’t checked it yet until now.

Let us note that before receiving the post of military prosecutor, Konstantin Gennadievich wanted to become an anti-corruption prosecutor. He applied for this position, but did not pass the competition. Then Kulik filed 3 lawsuits. Why already 3? He just wanted to get to the “right judge” who would make the “correct” decision. When such a judge was found, the remaining 2 claims were immediately withdrawn. As a result, Kulik received a resolution canceling the decision of the competition commission for the selection of candidates for administrative positions in the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. This decision called into question the results of the competition and the creation of NABU as such, but they managed to hush up the matter, although Kulik intends to continue the litigation.

The Kulik-Matios tandem switched to their native military prosecutor’s office. But they did not lose anything from this, because a number of their powers confuse even people who are far from these vicissitudes. Let’s say they are often involved in matters that have nothing to do with the army or the war; their main focus is corruption. But the most interesting thing is who pushed Kulik to take these actions regarding NABU? It turns out that this is the head of the SBU Vasily Gritsak, a business partner of Matios, who is in charge of anti-corruption cases. This is quite logical, because these characters do not benefit from the investigation of the “diamond prosecutors” case. It was the military prosecutor’s office, represented by Matios, who was the first to doubt the reliability of the identified diamond facts. There was talk that the case would be closed, but for now the process is ongoing.

What is Kulik doing in his swamp?

To fully clarify the situation, it is worth understanding the purpose for which the military prosecutor’s office was created in the ATO zone. Its main mission is to control military law in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. The need to create a department was discussed after an incident involving the Tornado Ministry of Internal Affairs company. Some of the unit’s fighters were accused of crimes – robberies, kidnappings and torture. So the military prosecutors “went” to the ATO with the sacred mission of maintaining order. Only now the war is a Klondike for those who like to make quick, and most importantly, illegal money. And Konstantin Kulik is no exception.

An interesting fact is that Konstantin Kulik makes laws in the ATO while at home in Kyiv or in Kharkov with his parents. Occasionally he goes on business trips, where, as is known, they pay 3 thousand for 5 days.

Smuggling at checkpoints. What is the main source of income for a prosecutor in the ATO? Of course, roadblocks. If at the initial stage of hostilities we were talking about looting, then the access system and checkpoints make it possible to earn serious income completely “legally.” The military prosecutor’s office fully controls the movement of goods and people across the territories. In addition, drug and arms trafficking is flourishing in Donbass. It’s no secret that at checkpoints they charge from 50 to 150 thousand UAH. for passing one truck with illegal cargo. But whether to pay attention to this nuance or turn a blind eye – the military prosecutor’s office in the person of Konstantin Gennadievich decides independently.

The Ruzhansky case. The second thing Kulik took on was to initiate criminal cases against volunteers. The first high-profile case is related to ATO fighter Sergeant Alexander Ruzhansky. In 2015, in Kramatorsk, he was attacked by a group of separatist-minded, previously convicted local residents (one of them appeared on the “Peacemaker” website, the second had a criminal record and used drugs). For the sake of fairness, we note that Ruzhansky used a Fort traumatic pistol in the fight. After the incident, he wrote a statement to the police, but the materials were quickly taken away by the ATO military prosecutor’s office and identified the incident as hooliganism with the use of weapons, Article 296 part 4 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The head of the investigation of the military prosecutor’s office of the ATO forces, Dmitry Aleksandrovich Zarkhin, took charge of the case, and Konstantin Kulik supervised everything. Zarkhin immediately took the side of the separatists and did not even hide it. How else can we explain the fact that the traumatic pistol of an ATO soldier suddenly became a “firearm” in practice? True, Ruzhansky was offered to hush up the matter, but he did not agree. As it turned out, Alexander Ruzhansky from 1994 to 1996. worked as an investigator and assistant prosecutor of the Moskovsky district of Kharkov. So it’s clear to him how the prosecutor’s office works and what the option of “hushing up the case” turns out to be. According to unverified information, investigator Zarkhin is an old friend of Yevgeny Zhilin, the leader of Oplot and the main separatist of Kharkov. So it’s clear where this “love” for patriots comes from.

Ruzhansky’s detention also raises many questions. His computer and phone were confiscated – this is at least strange, considering that he was charged with hooliganism. However, there is a small detail that was revealed during the process – Ruzhansky was collecting incriminating evidence on… Konstantin Kulik. And it’s worth noting that he did pretty well. The former investigator provided information about the military prosecutor’s real estate and fraud related to it, about falsifications in tenders in which his mother’s company participated, and about connections with Evgeny Zhilin.

Sergeant Ruzhansky was given a preventive measure – 2 months in prison. It is interesting that the judge at the trial was the famous Larisa Pereverzeva. It was she who judged those disliked by the Yanukovych Family. In 2012, Mrs. Pereverzeva imprisoned Donetsk activist Konstantin Lavrov (*criminal), who protested against the construction of Alexander Yanukovych’s house, for 5 years. He was accused of extorting money from the director of the large construction corporation MAKO, which belonged to Sasha the Dentist. This is such a mockery, and the sentence Lavrov (*criminal) received is a punishment for trying to poke his nose into the affairs of the powers that be.

Did the Kurchenko case sink Kulik?

Konstantin Gennadievich allegedly began investigating the case of the young oligarch Sergei Kurchenko in 2014, when he was still the head of the transport investigation department of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine. He and three other investigators managed to collect part of the evidence and put Kurchenko himself, Boris Timonkin, a member of the Brokbusinessbank supervisory board, and other people on the wanted list. However, part of the group fled to Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) and Crimea, and the investigation became more difficult. And then the position of military prosecutor loomed just around the corner, and Kulik rushed into battle, apparently even going to the ATO. And it was there that he encountered Kurchenko’s group, which was trying to organize illegal trade in gasoline and gas in the DPR and LPR. Thus, sponsoring the separatists with cash, and this is already aiding terrorism. Evgeny Fainitsky, the former head of the investigative department of the SBU of the Kharkov region, Kurchenko’s protege, responsible for the functioning of his fictitious companies and tax evasion, “worked” in this direction in the ATO zone. He was listed as the Minister of Fuel and Energy of the DPR until May 2015 (official date of death). Konstantin Gennadievich decided to continue the “active” investigation. True, no one noticed any significant changes.

However, over time, with the light hand of Kulik, the following people fell under the thresher of the current government: former Deputy Minister of Economy Alexander Sukhomlin, top manager of the VETEK company Andrey Koshel – associates of the young oligarch Kurchenko, as well as the ex-deputy head of Naftogaz and the ex-head of Chernomorneftogaz Alexander, who was detained recently. By the way, the latter helped Kurchenko’s company “Gas of Ukraine 2020” steal 500 million hryvnia from the state holding company.

And only the case against these individuals went to court when NABU put forward a report of suspicion of illegal enrichment to Konstantin Kulik. It is impossible to say for sure whether this is a coincidence or a carefully planned scheme. According to NABU representative Maxim Grischuk, for five years Konstantin Gennadievich earned less than he spent over the last year and a half, including on the purchase of luxury real estate in the center of Kyiv and expensive cars for his common-law wife and mother. Namely: an apartment in the “Diplomat Hall” on Zhilyanskaya, an apartment in the building next door to this apartment, a Toyota Land Cruiser – for 1.2 million hryvnia for a cohabitant, and a Toyota RAV4 for 460 thousand hryvnia, purchased by the mother. Just speaking in numbers, the salary of the military prosecutor for 5 years amounted to 1 million 600 thousand hryvnia, while over the last year and a half he acquired property worth more than 3 million hryvnia. Simple calculation: expenses are 30 times higher than income.

The Pechersk District Court issued permission to access documents on the property of Kulik and his relatives back in December 2015. However, for six months none of the investigators took any action. Most likely, there was no signal from above.

Only on June 29, 2016, information appeared about a search in the house of the prosecutor of the ATO forces. After him, they wanted to give Kulik a notice of suspicion of illegal enrichment, but he locked himself in his house and did not go to the investigators. Then came a series of interrogations. For example, Semyon Semenchenko was summoned to NABU (Read more about him in the article by Semyon Semenchenko. Fake commander). And here is a sensational statement – it turns out Semenchenko was also collecting incriminating evidence on Kulik, but for some reason he didn’t show it before.

On July 1, 2016, NABU detectives finally found Konstantin Gennadievich, handed over suspicion and placed him under round-the-clock house arrest. And then the judicial “football” began: on July 4, the court removed Kulik from the post of military prosecutor, but on July 13, the Kyiv Court of Appeal reinstated him.

During this week, incriminating recordings of telephone conversations between Konstantin Kulik and “a person who has extensive connections in law enforcement agencies” surface. The disgraced prosecutor turns to his interlocutor “Yakovich/Yakovlevich” and asks for help.

Journalist Alexander Dubinsky declassified the mysterious “Yakovich”.

In his opinion, Kulik spoke by telephone with a freelance adviser to the former head of the Ministry of Ecology and the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry, Evgeny Feldsherov. According to Dubinsky, Feldsherov is a shadow “decider”

It is not known whether the mysterious interlocutor helped Konstantin Gennadievich, but it can be assumed that someone did intervene in this game

However, the most important question is who initiates all this?

“Young reformers” were involved in the Kurchenko case. For example, ex-Deputy Prosecutor General Vitaly Kasko (Read more about it in the article Vitaly Kasko – schemer, corrupt official, “downed pilot”), who headed the Arzinger firm, which provided legal services to protect Kurchenko’s interests. He was also the first to come to the aid of the young oligarch when he needed to quickly withdraw his assets in 2014. And here it’s worth taking a break from Kasko’s person and figuring out who is playing on NABU’s side. Deputy head of NABU Sytnik initiates searches of Kulik (Read more about him in the article ARTEM SYTNIK. FAT LIFE OF THE CHIEF ANTI-CORRUPTION MANAGER) – Gizo Uglava, who represents the team of reformers of Mikheil Saakashvili. There is another person from NABU involved in the Kulik case – ex-Deputy Prosecutor General David Sakvarelidze, also a representative of the “Georgian team”. It was with the latter that Vitaly Kasko decided to create a new political party. And the patron will be none other than the Georgian governor of Odessa. An interesting note: as soon as the NABU activated the Kulik case, the GPU immediately pulled the dusty volumes of Kasko’s “apartment” case from the shelf. So there is a clear confrontation between the two departments and their patrons. To be more specific, the story goes like this: Kulik, who is associated with the people of Yuriy Lutsenko (Read more about him in the article Yuriy Lutsenko. “Terminator” of Ukrainian politics), is digging under Kasko, who began his political career, Saakashvili, who oversees NABU and the “young prosecutors” project, does not like this, so Kulik gets suspicion, and the GPU does not remain in debt and brings Kasko’s case to the surface.

There is another version of Konstantin Kulik’s unexpected pressure – “revenge” of the FSB. She was nominated by Gennady Moskal (more about him in the article Gennady Moskal: the many-faced general-foul-mouthed general and Georgy Tuka picked it up. Allegedly, Konstantin Gennadievich was investigating a case of drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Ukraine through the combat zone. This was related to the high-profile murder of Ukrainian security forces in September 2015 near the village of Lobachevo in the Lugansk region. Then the anti-smuggling group in the ATO zone, headed by Andrei Glushchenko (“Andrew”), was shot. The murder was professional; it was not separatists who did the work, but most likely Ukrainian law enforcement officers. Suspicion fell on counterintelligence officers of the SBU and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, then the “shooters” were transferred to the police of the Lugansk region. The ex-deputy commander of the Tornado battalion, Nikolai Tsukur, decided to name the names of the culprits. In his opinion, the order was made by Anatoly Naumenko, head of the Main Department of Internal Affairs in the Lugansk region. As you can see, this is a familiar battle between groups of people in uniform for the right to “bind” smugglers, and then siphon money from them.

Regarding Kulik’s role in this matter: everyone knows that the movement of illegal goods goes through checkpoints. So it’s unlikely that Kulik would want to cut off such a gold mine as drugs from Afghanistan.

The prosecutor’s favorite rich women

Konstantin Kulik has two beloved women – his mother, Svetlana Kulik, and his mistress, Irina Nimets. They are both dollar millionaires. And by the way, they became rich relatively recently – about a year ago. The enrichment coincided with the appointment of Konstantin Gennadievich to the post of military prosecutor. Let’s take an inventory of the Kulik family’s property.

Apartments.

It’s worth starting with real estate because there are two interesting stories associated with it. The Kulik family’s apartments are located in the capital’s “Diplomat Hall” on the street. Zhilyanskaya. The total area including the superstructure is about 500 sq.m. (the price per square meter in this house reaches $3,000).

One of these apartments is registered to the mother of the military prosecutor, Svetlana Kulik.

The second one was given by a certain Givi Maksheev.

He is the former owner of the companies “Zheleznodorozhpostach”, “Kivo” and “Swong”, the jewelry company “Vilant”, and is also a defendant in a criminal case related to abuse of power on the railway, or more simply, the theft of Ukrzaliznytsia. Let us recall that Konstantin Gennadievich worked for several years for the benefit of the transport prosecutor’s office, and also acted as a guarantor for the criminal authority Igor Butanov.

Butanov’s companies, Soyuz Dortrans LLC and Soyuz Expo LLC, registered in Cherkassy at the same address, supplied Ukrzaliznytsia with goods worth 200 million hryvnia in 2008-2012. The company is now at the stage of liquidation.

In addition, Kulik is involved in an old case of theft of funds from Ukrzaliznytsia. We are talking about the transfer of 260 million hryvnia from the railway workers’ department to a certain Artemis fund. According to one version, the money was spent in 2004 on the presidential campaign of Viktor Yanukovych. The investigator in this case was Konstantin Kulik, then still a protege of ex-Deputy Prosecutor General Vitaly Shchetkin. However, the money sank into oblivion, and the culprits were not found. It was rumored that Kulik was investigating “privately.” Only after the “Donetsk people” came to the GPU, the case was hushed up, and in 2009, a certain citizen Petoshin, the main witness who was involved in cashing out funds from Ukrzaliznytsia through Artemis, was professionally killed.

So, let’s return to old friend Givi. He presented a gift apartment to Kulik when he was in the ATO. However, the prosecutor did not own this luxury real estate for long. He immediately transferred the donated apartment to his common-law wife Irina. By the way, for her, Konstantin Gennadievich purchased an apartment on the street. Saperno-Slobodskaya and the premises in Pechersk, where the young lady opened something like an atelier with the modest name “By Nemez”.

Cars. Last year, the car fleet of Irina Nimets, who works as a seamstress and waitress at the Yakitoria restaurant, was replenished with a Mercedes car worth from 3 to almost 9 million UAH.

By the way, in 2014, Irina Nimets’ income amounted to 1 thousand 687 hryvnia per year.

The Kulik family also has a couple of luxury cars. For example, a Land Rover, a brand new Toyota RAV-4 and another Mercedes. After purchasing Toyota and Mercedes cars, NABU applied to the court with a request to provide access to documents on the purchase of SUVs. Detectives found that the purchase and sale agreement indicated the purchase of a car by bank transfer through Credit Agricole Bank. In fact, it turned out that the money was deposited into the bank account in cash, so the cars were purchased in cash.

Here it is worth remembering the story of the car of Evgeniy Zhilin’s father, in which Konstantin Kulik drove through the ATO zone. It turns out that she also belongs to Irina Nimets. The girl herself said this. According to her, she bought this car in 2009 from Vladimir Zhilin. And the money for its purchase was given by “a man who is no longer alive.”

Million dollar company. In 2014, after the opening of competitive bidding proposals for public procurement, the company Budivelny Center Ayudar LLC was at the center of the scandal. She was supposed to supply coal to Ukrzaliznytsia in the amount of about 100 million hryvnia. Very strange: a completely unknown company and such a volume of delivery with an astronomical amount. The company turned out to be registered to Svetlana Kulik from the village of Korotich, Kharkov region in 2011. The lady was unknown in wide circles then, but in narrow circles everyone knew her, because she was Konstantin Kulik’s mother. Since 2013, the company began to win small tenders: for clearing the bed of the Lyubka River, equipping Kyiv with control and monitoring systems for gas pollution, supplying concrete and wood to the Odessa railway. As a result, it turned out that the company had agreements for 3.15 million hryvnia.

In addition, in 2014, Ayudar was mentioned in reports from the State Medicines Service. The company sold goods that were not registered in Ukraine under the guise of medicines.

The company still exists. And most likely, its business is going well, because the war in Donbass and the coal crisis open up opportunities for smuggling.

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Everyone does what they do best. Konstantin Kulik knows how to get away with it, deceiving the whole of Ukraine.

Arina Dmitrieva, for SKELET-info