European Courts in a role of a slap: luxurious villas owned by the former head of the Presidents of Ukraine administration Serhiy Lyovochkin finally arrested In Nice.
An elite corner of the French Riviera in France. Near the villa/museum of Baroness Beatrice Rothschild, in a quiet bay on the Mediterranean Sea, there is the small town Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Right here settled the beneficiary of Ukrainian corruption - Serhiy Lyovochkin.
This is an excerpt from the member of the parliament of Ukraine article and well-known journalist Serhiy Leshchenko dated back to the year 2016. His investigation had shocked not only Ukrainians. After all, that is extremely difficult to imagine that an official which have been engaged only in politics from the end of the 90s can be an owner of the real estate worth 40 million Euros.
Two years after the publication of Leshchenko's story regarding luxurious villas, there were two of them - one belonged to Serhiy Lyovochkin, the other - to his sister Yulia, - has found an unexpected continuation.
On the February 2nd, 2018, the tribunal of Nice (Le tribunal de grande instance de Nice) arrested this property. The court decision states that is a subject to arrest:
- estate located in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrer at the address 56 Boulevard du General de Gaulle, registered in the name of Glorietta Investments I APS (legal address: Rygards Alle, 104, 2900, Hellerup, Denmark) under the registration number 32344577. Its estimated cost reaches 40 million euros.
- estate located in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrer at the address 54 Boulevard du General de Gaulle, registered in the name of SCI Villa Saint Michel (office registration address: 4 Rue Docteur Barety, 06000, Nice, France) under the registration number in Nice No. 752 484 378. Its estimated cost reaches 10 million euros.
According to the French law, any real estate valued at more than EUR 1.3 million is a subject to a luxury tax. If the value of the property exceeds EUR 10 million the owner must pay to the state an amount of 1,5% of its value. Thus if the villa of the former head of the Presidential administration of Ukraine Serhiy Lyovochkin was valued at 40 million euros he would have had to pay at least 600,000 euros to the state budget of France.
It is likely that the Nice Court had arrested mentioned property with a view to find out whether taxes for it have been paid.
Interesting fact is that the mentioned villa and the land in its area were reflected by Lyovochkin in his income declaration for 2016. It states that the member of parliament of Ukraine can use it free of charge by the reason that this right was granted to him by his sister - in the same time also member of parliament — Yulia Lyovochkina who appears as the final beneficiary of Danish company Glorietta Investments I APS, which owns a villa on the Cote d'Azur.
In Yulia Lyovochkina income declaration both villas which Nice court has arrested are listed. At the same time the second one which is valued at 10 million euros is described as a "residential building - reconstruction."
Serhiy Lyovochkin has been engaged in politics since 1999. His positions ranged from the counselor of the head of the state to the head of the Presidential Administration of Viktor Yanukovych. Lyovochkin resigned in the midst of the Revolution of Dignity, which took place in Ukraine in 2014. Today he is a member of parliament of Ukraine in the fraction «Oppositsiiniy bloc», which assembled former members of the Party of Regions leaded by the runaway President Viktor Yanukovych.
It is widely known that Lyovochkin is one of the owners of Ukrainian TV channel «Inter».
It is curious that the deputy Lyovochkin's declaration did not raise any questions at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. The body created to check the authenticity of declarations of the officials and the origin of funds for purchasing of the certain things or real estate was not disturbed by the fact that the official has a villa in Nice in a value of 40 million euros.
Such screaming issues should arise an interest of the Anti-Corruption Bureau to the sister of Lyovochkin who is a member of parliament as well and in the same time owner of elite real estate. In which way the family of Lyovochkin`s gained fabulous funds for these acquisitions Ukrainian law-enforcement officers are surprisingly not interesting at all.
Though the court decision of Nice might shake up Ukrainian fighters against the corruption just as it is already happening in the cases of the other Ukrainian oligarchs. The court of London recently arrested a part of assets belonging to the former head of Dnipropetrovsk region administration Igor Kolomoyskii and the Cyprus court meanwhile arrested the assets of the richest man of Ukraine, Rinat Akhmetov.
In case of a European courts decisions are really necessary to improve the fight with the corruption in Ukraine the situation with Lyovochkin may be the first "fat cat” in this process. Otherwise, foreign partners, US among them, may once and for all cease to provide Ukraine means to overcome the cancer named corruption. That's how it was described by former vice president of the United States Joe Biden several years ago while speaking from the rostrum of the parliament of Ukraine.