The gang of Oleksandr Kvasov, nicknamed “Sasha Farmazon,” has been operating in Kryvyi Rih for more than ten years.
Under the roof of local law enforcement officers, and thanks to corrupt judges, the scope of Sasha Farmazon's activities reached such proportions that Kvasov seriously thought about a political career, starting with the creation of the charitable foundation "Steel Heart of Kryvbas".
As a reminder, Oleksandr Kvasov is a well-known bandit and raider in the region. In the criminal world, Oleksandr Kvasov is known as a virtuoso forger, specializing in forging documents, signatures, and seals.
Actually, Oleksandr Kvasov made his “first million” precisely thanks to the “pharmazone” – by seizing 4,000 hectares of agricultural land through forged signatures.
To seize the land, Oleksandr Kvasov forged the signatures of peasants and even their deceased fellow villagers. The conflict had a significant public resonance, even reaching the point of a “peasant revolt ,” when about a hundred peasants surrounded Kvasov’s car, demanding the return of the stolen land.
PHOTO: Villagers surrounded Oleksandr Kvasov's car due to land raider seizure
Then law enforcement officers were forced to react, as information about the "peasant revolt" went beyond the borders of the Dnipropetrovsk region, but thanks to connections with the local police, Oleksandr Kvasov was able to avoid responsibility and continued his illegal activities.
The next high-profile scandal arose relatively recently, in 2020, due to the situation in the village of Zlatoustivka, where farmer Andriy Moshel claimed that his land had been raided. Court decisions confirmed the rights of Moshel's family, but every year the police and prosecutor's office returned to the fields, seizing equipment and blocking the harvest.
To understand exactly how “Sasha Farmazon” avoided criminal liability, it is worth paying attention to his connections with law enforcement officers, to whom Kvasov consistently “brought” 10% of his so-called “business”.
In this context, it is worth noting that Oleksandr Kvasov's lawyer was Mykola Kasyan, whose sister Iryna Borovets worked as a deputy prosecutor of the Kryvyi Rih Local Prosecutor's Office No. 2, Maksym Kotsenko.
Among the police officers who at that time “covered” the activities of “Sasha Farmazon” were the head of the investigation of the Kryvyi Rih police department, Oleksandr Igorovych Hoptarev, and the deputy head of the investigation department of police department No. 1 of the Kryvyi Rih district police department, Oleksandr Andriyovych Nosevych.
PHOTO: Oleksandr Hoptarev covered Sasha Farmazon's activities for 10% of the "business"
Having felt complete impunity under the roof of the Dnipropetrovsk region’s law enforcement officers, Oleksandr Kvasov found a new “niche” for earning money and started “knocking out non-existent debts from local businessmen.” It is worth noting that the “knocking out of debts” took place “in the basement” with the use of torture, including the “symbol of the 90s” – a soldering iron.
It is worth mentioning here that in the “new business” Oleksandr Kvasov has a partner – his godfather Dmytro Khramenko, nicknamed “Intellectual”. Kvasov and Khramenko own a restaurant, where “sexual orgies” with the participation of minors took place on a regular basis, and there the godfathers discussed almost all their illegal actions, the records of which are available to law enforcement officers.
Dmytro Khramenok is known in the Dnipropetrovsk region as the “king of counterfeit goods.” He owns 12 illegal gas stations, 15 scrap metal collection points, 9 excise-free tobacco and alcohol stores, and underground cigarette and alcohol shops.
In the spring of 2025, searches were conducted at the home of Dmytro Khramenok of the “Intellectual” group, during which 30 boxes of counterfeit vodka were seized. According to sources, the investigators themselves offered the “Intellectual” group to “solve the issue” for $50,000, but “without guarantees.” Judging by the fact that the “king of counterfeits” continues his work without hindrance, we can conclude that “they were not deceived.”
All 15 scrap metal collection points of Inteligent also continue to operate, and their addresses are well known to both local residents and law enforcement officers:
Saksaganskyi district
GBK Buran
Balka Kaletina (garages), Yubileyna district
Oktyabrsky district
20 Elektrozavodska Street (boiler house)
Mykola Svitalskoho St., 7 — nearby (3rd garage)
St. Svyazku, 4
7 Stasova Street (garages)
Geneva Street — base opposite the 9th City Hospital
Dolgintsivskyi district
Leonid Borodych St., 14
Ingulets district
GBK Enricher
Ternovskyi district
GBK East
82 Kolachivskoho St.
Dzerzhinsky district
Fergana St., 23
According to the source, in order to “not notice” the work of all 15 scrap metal collection points of Dmytro Khramenok, Kryvyi Rih police officers receive $5,000 monthly.
But the most profitable “business” of Sasha Farmazon and Intelligent was “knocking out” non-existent debts from local businesses.
For example, the region was recently shaken by the news that local businessman Viktor Pavlyuk was kidnapped and tortured for 3 days in a basement using a soldering iron and a red-hot torch.
PHOTO: Kvasov and Khramenko kidnapped Viktor Pavlyuk and tortured him in the basement for 3 days
The investigation established that Oleksandr Kvasov, his godfather and partner Dmytro Khramenko, and local sole proprietor Karen Movsisyan were involved in the illegal actions.
PHOTO: Oleksandr Kvasov, Dmytro Khramenko and Karen Movsisyan detained for kidnapping, torture and extortion
According to court records , a local resident contacted the Kryvyi Rih police on May 15, 2025. The woman reported that the day before, at about 5 p.m., her husband had gone to meet his acquaintances, Kvasov and Khramenko, at the Syndicate cafe, but had stopped answering calls.
On the evening of May 14, one of the participants of the rendezvous called her back and informed her about the kidnapping of her significant other. The woman promptly arrived at the entertainment venue, where she was told the initial version of the events. Allegedly, at about 9 p.m., 3-4 young men in black tracksuits and balaclavas, holding weapons, burst into the Syndicate banquet hall through an emergency exit. The “visitors” instructed the visitors to “lower their heads down,” struck the applicant’s husband several times, and then led him out of the room “at gunpoint.”
Her husband's friends (probably referring to "Farmazon" and "Intellectual") advised the bewildered wife to wait a few hours and assured her that her husband would return soon, and also stated that the surveillance cameras in the "banquet" of the "Syndicate" did not record the circumstances of the crime. The woman ignored the advice of her friends and independently found another video near the scene of the events.
Thanks to this, the focus of law enforcement attention was on the Hyundai Terracan car, in which the kidnappers took the kidnapping victim from the cafe. The corresponding vehicle was allegedly seen near the warehouses on Ferganska Street, where Dmytro Khramenko's company . On May 16, a search was carried out here, but not the kidnapped man was found, but a technological workshop equipped with equipment for the conveyor production of alcohol.
Analyzing the information reported during the interrogation of the victim and the information received regarding the existence of her husband's long-standing financial obligations to Kvasov and Khramenko, law enforcement officers began to work out a version regarding his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of "Intelligent" and "Farmazon".
According to the investigation's further interpretation, the abduction victim was kept in a house by the attackers on the first night after the kidnapping, where, using a red-hot metal torch and a soldering iron, they demanded that they give them 1 million dollars and indicate the location of another 500 thousand. And on the morning of May 15, having learned about the appeal to the police by the abducted man's wife, they obtained from the latter a video recording of an appeal to his beloved so that she would stop searching for him. Later, the man was kept blindfolded in the basement for several days, and at about 11 p.m. on May 17, they were taken out to a field, where they left him near an electric pole.
PHOTO: Screenshot of the official statement of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Police regarding the detention of Oleksandr Kvasov, Dmytro Khramenko, and Karen Movsisyan
Despite significant public outcry, the Head of the Industrial District Court of Dnipro, Judge Larysa Anatoliivna Belchenko, actually released Farmazon and Intelligent, having decided to apply preventive measures in the form of detention with the possibility of release on bail in the amount of 908.4 thousand UAH and 24-hour house arrest.
PHOTO: Chairman of the Industrial District Court of Dnipro, Judge Larysa Anatoliivna Belchenko
As our sources report, Judge Larysa Belchenko received $500,000 for such a “loyal” decision.
Regarding Oleksandr Kvasov's "patrons" in law enforcement agencies, whose "covering" Sasha Farmazon believes is possible for the kidnapping and torture of people in Kryvyi Rih, our editorial office has their names.
We are talking about the head of the Kryvyi Rih police, Volodymyr Vasyliev, and the former regional prosecutor, Serhiy Bizhko.
PHOTO: Volodymyr Vasyliev and Serhiy Bizhko – Sasha Farmazon and Intelligent’s “roof” in law enforcement agencies
According to our source, for closing the case of kidnapping, torture and extortion, Oleksandr Kvasov and Dmytro Khramenko paid law enforcement officers $50,000 and “gifted” them a Škoda Kodiaq. Also, every month, Kvasov pays an amount equivalent to 10% of the harvested crop, and Khromenko pays $5,000 so that the police do not notice his illegal business in the scrap metal trade.
It is also worth noting that Oleksandr Kvasov has made friends and partners in the political environment who periodically use his “services.”
Among them are two MPs – “servant of the people” Yuriy Kisel and the scandalous Anna Skorokhod. According to the source, Skorokhod and Kvasov were introduced by their common drug dealer.
PHOTO: People's Deputies Anna Skorokhod and Yuriy Kisel are part of Sasha Farmazon's inner circle
As we can see, under the roof of local law enforcement officers, corrupt judges, and with the assistance of top politicians, Oleksandr Kvasov is building his own "empire of influence" in the region, which has long gone beyond the scope of ordinary banditry.
Continuation of the topic in the next part of our journalistic investigation.
