The court refused to arrest with tens of thousands of dollars in cash withdrawn during the search at Lyudmila Gogolenko - the mother -in -law of Zaporizhzhya businessman Oleg Mitrokhin, who appears in an investigation into abuse on defense contracts.
During the searches in Gogolenko, law enforcement officers found $ 68.5 thousand and 5 thousand euros. The defense insisted that this money was allegedly obtained legally - for the sale of an apartment, designed through a power of attorney in her name.
According to the materials submitted to the court, in December 2024, the daughter of Gogolenko (she is Mitrokhin's wife) issued a power of attorney for the sale of the apartment. Two weeks later, Gogolenko, acting on behalf, signed the contract and, according to the defense, received $ 56 thousand in cash from the buyer. All this time, according to the family, the money was lying at home, because the daughter was not able to come and pick them up.
However, the court decided that such explanations did not give proper confirmation of the legal origin of the entire amount. The judges stressed that the documents provided by the defense party do not refute suspicions of the possible illegal nature of the origin of funds. The petition for the cancellation of the arrest was denied.
It is important that Lyudmila Gogolenko is not just a relative, but a key figure in the structure that the investigation associates with large -scale schemes for the withdrawal of public funds. According to journalistic investigations, about $ 70 million was withdrawn from Ukraine through the Bulgarian firm Viktor Invest , which it heads. These funds came, in particular, from the Mick and Yugstal enterprises, which belong to Mitrokhin and were contractors of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
The businessman himself publicly positions himself as a volunteer, but there are many questions in his activity. His companies have repeatedly won tenders for the supply of military goods at inflated prices. In addition, journalists found links between Mitrokhin firms and a number of offshore structures, which may indicate possible money laundering.
The arrested cash case is considered in the framework of a broader criminal proceedings. Law enforcement officers do not rule out that the funds identified are part of the transit of public procurement abuses. The investigation is ongoing.
