According to the international project “Dubai Unlocked”, several Ukrainian officials, including those representing the Cabinet of Ministers, the Kyiv City State Administration and a defense enterprise, turned out to be owners of prestigious real estate in Dubai. To avoid information about these assets in their declarations, they transferred the property to the names of their wives. However, thanks to the investigation of journalists from the “Schemes” project, this scheme was uncovered, and the names of the officials were revealed.
One of them is Vitaliy Koblosh, director of the Ukrainian government's humanitarian and social policy department, whose name is associated with the Wyndham Dubai Marina hotel. His wife, Natalia, purchased one of the hotel's large rooms in 2018 for $331,000. Koblosh claims he had no information about the property.
The second official, Viktor Perepelytsia, head of the Iskra Scientific and Production Complex Enterprise Bureau, also owns apartments in Dubai, but they are not mentioned in his declarations in recent years.
A third official, Dmytro Rakhmatullin, acting head of the Kyiv City State Administration's motor transport enterprise, purchased 16 apartments in Dubai for $14.5 million, but this information is also missing from his declarations.
These actions by officials are a violation of anti-corruption legislation and can have serious consequences, including criminal liability.
Viktor Perepelitsa's wife has owned an apartment in the Burj Vista Tower 1 skyscraper in Dubai since February 2014. This is the date when bloody shootings took place on Maidan during the Revolution of Dignity. According to documents, this 84 square meter property is valued at $430,000. However, it is not listed in the official's declaration. As is the rental income, which has exceeded $154,000 since 2018.
In response to journalists' questions, Viktor Perepelitsa claims that he has no idea that his wife owns this property. His wife, Olga, also denies any connection to this property. According to their daughter, she purchased the apartment in Dubai under a power of attorney from her mother, investing her own money and without informing her parents.
“My mother was never here. I bought it myself, without her knowledge. I just wrote it down in my mother’s name, since I had full power of attorney for her,” said Olga Perepelytsia.
Among the people who own real estate in Dubai, the head of the municipal motor transport enterprise of the capital's mayor's office, Dmitry Rakhmatullin, appeared. Already in 2009, he purchased real estate near the island of Jebel Ali. Rakhmatullin has ownership rights to 16 apartments in the skyscraper “Ferretti Luxury Beach Residence” with a total area of 2,255 square meters, estimated at 14.5 million dollars. However, this building was never erected.
Regarding this property in Dubai, Rakhmatullin states that he is not its owner and believes that he has no property that requires declaration. At the time of purchasing the apartments, he said, he worked for a private company in the Arab-African region. However, since 2015, he has held positions in Kyiv, but during this period he has not included information about this property in his declaration.
Recently, journalists from the “Schemes” project discovered premium real estate in residential complexes in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, owned by former Ukrainian officials, MPs, judges and prosecutors. The total value of these apartments is about $30 million. Among the lucky owners of these expensive apartments are the former Minister of Ecology during Yanukovych’s time, Mykola Zlochevsky, the former president of Motor Sich, Vyacheslav Boguslaev, the lobbyist of the “EDAPS” concern and former regional representative, Vasyl Hrytsak, the former judge Artur Yemelyanov and the former deputy prosecutor of the Odessa region, Oleg Kornilov.
According to the study, the head of the Kyiv District Court of Odessa, Serhiy Chvankin, was found to have lied and declared his wife's company in the United States, which purchased apartments in Miami. Their value is 310 thousand dollars, or 12 million hryvnias. The property was purchased in March 2023, although in the declaration for 2022 the judge indicated only 9.7 million hryvnias of income, including his and his wife's salaries.
