Roman Gowda: how the prosecutor became the decider

Roman Gowda is a man who moved from a children’s bicycle to a foreign car, and from a university bench to a prosecutor’s chair. The capital’s prosecutor Gowda is comfortable and well-fed under any government. He is not afraid of either the Maidan or lustration, because Roman Mikhailovich is an ordinary pawn, a servant, a performer, a six. It doesn’t matter what we call Prosecutor Gowda, its essence will not change. The government is changing, but Roman Gowda is not.

Roman Gowda. Say a good word for the young prosecutor

At 36 years old, Govda Roman Mikhailovich is a 3rd class state councilor of justice, which corresponds to the rank of major general. The title Roman received from the hands of Petro Poroshenko (information on him: Petro Poroshenko: biography and the whole truth about the “chocolate king” of Ukraine). Also, for his conscientious attitude to the performance of official duties, initiative and efficiency in his work, Roman Gowda was awarded the badges: “Gratitude for conscientious service in the prosecutor’s office, III degree” and “For impeccable service in the prosecutor’s office.”

But where in such a short period of time does a boy with greasy hair, who until recently was dressed in simple wide shorts, get so much merit and honor? Skelet.Info I decided to figure it out. As it turned out, Gowda was and is valued under any power. The prosecutor was promoted up the career ladder at one time Victor Pshonka, Oleg Makhnitsky, Vitaly Yarema, Victor Shokin And Yuriy Lutsenko.

Gowda himself was never of particular value, he was not a child prodigy, he was not a talented lawyer, but he was always an excellent servant. He remains a servant to this day.

Roman Mikhailovich was born on December 10, 1980 in the city of Novoyavorovsk, Yavorovsky district, Lviv region. Almost from the cradle, Gowda sat down in the prosecutor’s chair. This is not surprising, because the lawyer’s parents worked in a sulfur mining industry, which means the family always had enough “cabbage.” Gowda’s father was the head of one of the sections, his mother was a surveyor. In the homeland of the lawyer, they say that a place in the prosecutor’s office was simply bought for a university graduate.

After Roman graduated from Ivan Franko Lviv State University in 2003, he took the place of assistant prosecutor of the Royal District of Zhitomir. By the way, on his Odnoklassniki page, Roman Govda indicated that he also studied at the Voronezh State University of Engineering Technologies. True, this fact is absent from his official biography.

Less than two years later, from April 2005, Gowda abruptly moved to the chair of the head of the department for supervision of compliance with laws by internal affairs bodies during operational investigative activities, inquiries and pre-trial investigations in the department for supervision of compliance with laws by bodies that carry out operational search activities, inquiry and pre-trial investigation in the prosecutor’s office of the Zhytomyr region.

He worked in this position until December 2010 and, as soon as the GPU was headed by Viktor Pshonka, Govda immediately moved to Kyiv. But why did the blue and white need an inconspicuous assistant prosecutor from the Zhytomyr region in the GPU? (By the way, working in such an important structure under Yanukovych did not affect Govda’s career in any way; lustration passed by).

Victor Shokin and Roman Govda

Skelet.Info It became known that under Yanukovych, Yuri Sevruk helped Govda find a job in a bread position. Former 1st Deputy Head of the GPU. Being from December 2012 to July 2014 the deputy head of the department for supervision of compliance with laws by internal affairs bodies of the Prosecutor General’s Office, he pushed Govda to the position of head of the department for supervision of compliance with laws in the implementation of operational investigative activities. And then, as they say, it all came crashing down.

Until November 2012, Gowda held the position of prosecutor and deputy head of the department for supervision of compliance with laws during operational investigative activities in the department for supervision of compliance with laws by internal affairs bodies of the Main Directorate for supervision of compliance with laws during operational investigative activities, inquiry and pre-trial investigation of the GPU.

Events on the Maidan led to Gowda’s next rise. In July 2014, Roman Mikhailovich became the first deputy head of the department for supervision of compliance with laws by internal affairs bodies of the Main Directorate for supervision of compliance with laws in criminal proceedings of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine.

He was demoted in April 2015, just at the time when the lustrators actively began their ritual dances around the GPU apparatus. In order to save Gowda from complete “destruction,” the prosecutor was exiled to the Black Sea, tasked with taking over Southern Palmyra.

After completing the task, in September 2015, Govda was appointed Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine. It is known that after this, in October-November 2015, Gowda made an attempt to head the specialized anti-corruption prosecutor’s office and participated in the announced competition. He was even called the favorite in the anti-corruption race, but the commission did not support his candidacy, and he remained in Shokin’s purview. The old-timers of the GPU really hoped that Govda would be appointed leader, least of all with the help of prosecutors dependent on the United States, including Georgians and Vitaly KaskoGowda lost. But this did not particularly upset the prosecutor, because he was not poorly fed anyway. As a result, Gowda carried out orders from the authorities, persecuted “undesirables,” organized criminal cases, received regalia as gratitude, and “ate out of hand” from Shokin himself.

But Gowda’s measured life was sharply shaken by the resignation of his boss. After the president’s godfather “left,” Gowda had to adapt to a new curator. So, if before Roman Mikhailovich served the president, then suddenly he went under the wing of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. This is evidenced by Govda’s participation in the conspiracy against Yuriy Lutsenko. Let us recall that after the news that Shokin’s place would be taken by Yuri Valentinovich, the deputy prosecutor generals rebelled against the supposed new chief.

In the spring of 2016, they even wrote an open letter to President Petro Poroshenko with a request not to appoint a person from outside the system as head of the supervisory agency. The message was signed by all deputies of the Prosecutor General, with the exception of the head of the SAPO Nazar Kholodnitsky and chief military prosecutor Anatoly Matios. As a result, having come to the GPU, Lutsenko carried out personnel purges, he threatened to remove Yuriy Sevruk, Roman Gowda and Oleg Zalisko, but, despite the fact that Gowda openly went against Lutsenko, he eventually put him in the bread position. But this was not Poroshenko’s order. The fact is that the Popular Front stood up for Gowda.

It is interesting that on May 31, Gowda himself wrote a letter of resignation, but he did not receive any offers to move to another position in the Prosecutor General’s Office. However, before his appointment to the post of capital prosecutor, he was not unemployed, but was listed as deputy head of the Department for Supporting the Activities of the GPU Management.

Roman Govda and Yuriy Lutsenko

After this, Govda headed the Kyiv prosecutor’s office. “I think that Roman Govda fell into the maelstrom of political confrontation between the Sakvarelidze-Kasko team and the old GPU team. He is a young, very smart worker with good professional experience. I believe that he will be able to cope with serious challenges in the capital’s prosecutor’s office. I spoke with anti-corruption activists, they don’t have any specific accusations against him,” Lutsenko said about Govda’s appointment.

But Skelet.Info something completely different is known: the appointment of Roman Govda to the post of prosecutor of Kyiv was carried out by “front-line soldiers” Sergey Pashinsky And Andrey Ivanchuk. Roman Mikhailovich fell into the quota for dividing spheres of influence between representatives of the Popular Front and the Petro Poroshenko Bloc.

Roman Gowda: Don’t open your mouth to someone else’s piece

Separately, it is worth paying attention to Govda’s prosecutorial office in Odessa. Without experience and visible merits, Roman Mikhailovich, exiled to Odessa, aroused the indignation of the local prosecutorial elite, the old-timers of the system.

Former prosecutor of the Odessa region Nikolai Stoyanov, commenting on Govda’s appointment, noted: “this is another Kiev resident who arrived in Odessa to resolve financial issues: his own, and those who confirmed him in office.”

In response to such remarks, Gowda retorted: “How much experience is needed to head the regional prosecutor’s office? The fact is that earlier they appointed more senior ones… Stereotypes and generally accepted practices may change. Why me? Perhaps you need to ask the prosecutor general and colleagues. My candidacy was proposed by Viktor Shokin, and his deputies approved it. After passing the interviews, I was assigned this area of ​​work.” Thus, he signed the fact that he was sent to South Palmyra directly by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. By the way, at first they wanted to send prosecutor Anatoly Matios to Odessa. But he managed to stay in the capital, and Gowda was sent to solve the affairs of the “BPP family.”

The six months in the Odessa region were not easy for Govda, because here he had to fight with Governor Mikheil Saakashvili, who, although at first glance the president’s man, was already “cooking his own porridge.”

Rumor has it that Saakashvili hounded Govda because he saw former Georgian Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili in the regional lawyer’s chair. In general, to put it simply, Gowda got involved in the scheme of redistributing spheres of influence, just at the moment when Saakashvili was practically in charge of everything and everyone.

That is why Saakashvili publicly accused the employees of the prosecutor’s office headed by Govda of banditry and racketeering (even though this was true, no one except the Georgian had previously dared to voice this). In response, Gowda said that the governor “simply did not understand” the circumstances. But this did not reassure Saakashvili, and he accused Govda’s wards of protecting the illegal mining of crushed stone in the Odessa region. But these were already personal squabbles…

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What exactly did Govda do in Odessa? Together with Shokin’s daughter Tatyana Gornostaeva, he headed a previously established scheme for protecting corruption schemes in Odessa. Prosecutors made a living by extorting money from businessmen who export and import. In order to completely take over this corruption scheme, the new prosecutor even got rid of a representative of the old system – his deputy Nikolai Klyantsko. The newly appointed boss did not like the appetites and authority of his subordinate. “I filed a petition addressed to the Prosecutor General for the dismissal of only one deputy, Nikolai Klyantsko. There were questions about his effectiveness in this position,” Gowda said then. But the matter was completely different. It is known that Klyantsko was the main decision-maker in the Ilyichevsk sea trade port, and Govda wanted to take his place.

The fact that Gowda was sent to deal with the port is evidenced by his personal words: “There really are violations at the port that indicate the theft of state property. There are a number of criminal cases that we are investigating. In particular, these are known facts of purchasing fuel at an inflated price. In the near future we will give an answer to who was involved and involved in these matters. Let’s evaluate not only the phenomenon, but also the individuals.”

And so, while Govda and Saakashvili managed to wrest the “Odessa Port Plant” from representatives of the old system and from Igor Kolomoisky himself, and the conflict between the governor and the prosecutor escalated to the limit, Roman Mikhailovich’s servant was taken to Kyiv, rewarded with a promotion.

Who is Roma Gowda really: the prosecutor or the one who decided?

As Viktor Shokin’s deputy, Govda had broad powers and enjoyed the trust of not only the Prosecutor General, but also the entire “family.” Therefore, Roman Mikhailovich was confidently trusted with strategic directions. The new government’s trust in Govda has not dried up either; for example, according to the order of the Prosecutor General No. 213 dated September 15, 2015, Govda was entrusted with the regular duties of supervising the information technology department and the department of organizational support of the ERDR and information and analytical work. And at the end of the year, Poroshenko even awarded Govda a number of new titles. For what, it’s not hard to guess. The chained dog-executor began work… As soon as Govda took charge of the capital department, the detention of the Deputy Minister of Health, ex-head physician of the Aleksandrovskaya Hospital Roman Vasylishin, against whom certain representatives of the current government and the coalition had long had a grudge, began.

But those in power always have a grudge against Gowda, so accusations, by the way, are 99% deserved, are regularly poured and continue to be poured in on him. For example, in August 2016, a video was published on YouTube in which Odessa resident, social activist Alexander Balagura, said that he had suffered from police brutality and openly threatened to deal with the prosecutor of the Odessa region, Govda. The Odessa resident assured that the regional prosecutor did his best to slow down the criminal proceedings against the employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine who offended him. As a result, Balagura achieved the opening of criminal proceedings based on inaction both against Govda himself and against the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Shokin. But the result was zero.

In addition to Saakashvili, the fight against Govda was led by another one who was brought up by the United States – Vitaly Kasko. In February 2016, he accused Gowda of delaying cases against former high-ranking officials, as well as of failing to return corruption funds embezzled by the previous government.

“At the level of Deputy Prosecutor General, Stolyarchuk is responsible for the investigation, Gowda is responsible for procedural management. And, ultimately, the Prosecutor General is, of course, responsible for all the work of the Prosecutor General’s Office,” said Kasko.

Kasko was also not happy with the news about Gowda’s prospects to head the capital’s department.

Former Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine David Sakvarelidze (read: Saakashvili) also reacted negatively to the appointment of Roman Govda; he said that the new prosecutor does not have the merits to hold this position. By the way, Skelet.Info it became known that Gowda received this promotion in gratitude for completing the task entrusted to him – eliminating Kasko. It is no secret that Gowda had even signed a suspicion against him earlier.

And in conclusion, one more interesting fact. In September 2016, Govda transferred employees of the Kyiv prosecutor’s office to the corporate messenger CommFort.

The developer and owner of the application is Novosibirsk LLC CommFort Software, whose founders are nuclear scientists and military specialists from Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). Essentially, Gowda installed Russian spyware on his subordinates’ phones and tablets.

The ascetic lifestyle of a young millionaire prosecutor

Roman Gowda is an extremely modest and practically penniless prosecutor. Alas, he still has not made his 2016 return public and therefore Skelet.Info cannot say with certainty whether the prosecutor has become rich recently. However, we know that last year his unemployed wife bought herself a 2015 TOYOTA RAV4. for 420 thousand UAH. By the way, the real cost of this used foreign car is much higher. So, you can buy it for no less than 650 thousand UAH. But Gowda’s wife apparently received a generous discount. Also in 2016, the prosecutor’s wife bought for 300 thousand UAH. some movable property from Tamara Kozitskaya. It is unknown what exactly Roman Mikhailovich’s wife acquired. But Gowda himself, before he took office as the capital’s prosecutor, last year received an advance payment for an apartment in the capital (60 sq.m.).

Well, since we do not have recent data on Roman Gowda’s income, Skelet.Info decided to analyze his old declarations from 2013 to 2015. This is what we have. For three years, Gowda lived on only one salary. In 2013 it amounted to 290 thousand UAH, in 2014 – 238 thousand UAH, in 2015 – 375.5 thousand UAH. In 2015, Gowda declared $23,000 in cash, and his wife declared €3,000. The fact is that 23 thousand dollars is 575 thousand UAH, that is, virtually all of Govda’s income for 2 years. What happens? Govda feeds on the Holy Spirit, his two children and wife eat manna from heaven, and the family exchanges all their salaries for currency and stores them under the mattress? But then it is not clear for what money Roman Mikhailovich’s wife buys cars and real estate. By the way, in 2015, Govda still managed to deposit more than 60 thousand UAH.

The wife of Roman Mikhailovich (worked in the GPU until 2016) did not declare a penny in 2013, in 2014 she received 176 thousand UAH, of which about 6 thousand UAH. – alimony, about 150 thousand UAH. – income from the sale of property and 26.5 thousand UAH. – other income; in 2015 – 31.5 thousand UAH, of which about 6 thousand UAH. – alimony, and 25.5 thousand UAH. – social payments.

Among the vehicles from Govda, a Renault Megane 2011, which he bought for 172.5 thousand UAH. Roman Gowda owns a plot of land with an area of ​​450 sq.m., purchased by him in 2009. The prosecutor does not have any other real estate, but it is known that in 2015 he rented an apartment with an area of ​​35 sq.m. in Kyiv.

But the situation with the real estate of Roman Mikhailovich’s wife is more interesting. So, in 2013, the prosecutor had a land plot with an area of ​​300 sq.m. and an apartment of 48 sq.m. Already in 2014, the prosecutor’s wife sold the apartment, and in 2015 she acquired a new land plot with an area of ​​311 sq.m. What’s interesting here is this… in his declaration for 2015, Gowda notes that a plot of 300 sq.m. was purchased in 2014 for 20 thousand 511 UAH, and the plot is 311 sq.m. purchased in 2015 for 43 thousand 353 UAH. Hmm… but Gowda declared his first share back in 2009. In addition, in 2014, out of nowhere, the prosecutor got a house with an area of ​​84.3 sq.m., and in 2015, an unfinished house with an area of ​​174 sq.m. and an unfinished garage of 26 square meters.

The metamorphoses in Roman Gowda’s declarations are easily explained. Throughout his time as a prosecutor, he made an excellent living by protecting illegal businesses and engaging in racketeering. He invested all this money in property, but now Gowda is trying to bring at least some objects out of the shadows, for example, the same house and garage. In fact, the prosecutor has much more hidden in his stash than he showed us.

Roman Gowda is a man of the system. There have never been and never will be any complaints from the authorities against him, because he carries out all orders unconditionally and unquestioningly, so he always remains afloat. But Gowda will sell his own mother for good money, so those who put him in high positions should be more careful.

Valeria Romanova, for Skelet.Info

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