At the end of September 2024, news broke about searches at Emelyanov's residence. Specifically, law enforcement conducted investigative actions at over 10 addresses, including the home of the former judge. According to journalistic investigations, Emelyanov's ex-wife owns luxury real estate in various parts of the world. The couple's divorce was reportedly described as fictitious.
The Unholy Trinity: Emelyanov, the Yanukovych Clan, and Russian Special Services
Donetsk judge Arthur Emelyanov leveraged his connections back home to build a rapid career. Over nine years, he advanced from deputy chairman of the Economic Court of Donetsk to deputy head of the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine. He moved to the capital in 2011 during Viktor Yanukovych's presidency. Viktor Tatkov, who led the Supreme Economic Court, lured him to Kyiv. Together, they orchestrated numerous raider seizures of businesses, carrying out orders from the Yanukovych clan.
3 Lawyer Vitaly Tytych detailed their scheme: interested parties approached Emelyanov and Tatkov with the aim of "taking over" a business. For this, a lawsuit was filed in the first instance court, where a pre-determined ruling was issued. Then, this decision was accompanied through appeals and cassations.
According to Tytych, cases were assigned to compliant judges who made pre-prepared decisions.
“The investigation established thousands of interventions in the automated case distribution system aimed at delivering unjust rulings," recalls Tytych, who initiated the investigation into the violations committed by Tatkov and his deputy Arthur Emelyanov. — It was not a court, but a private enterprise for making huge amounts of money," wrote Ukrainian media.
The General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine accuses Emelyanov of around 7,000 interventions in the automated case distribution system. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the activities of the "judicial organized crime group" created by Tatkov and Emelyanov, with the involvement of Pavel Malik, a native of Makeevka and a citizen of Austria. This group organized large-scale raider seizures, causing significant damage to the Ukrainian economy.
According to media reports, their raider schemes targeted businesses such as the Konstantinovsky Crystal Plant, the Makeevka Department Store, the Donetsk Central Department Store, the Shakhtar Hotel, the Obzhora supermarket chain, the Decor Donbass shopping mall, the Odessa Stalkanat, the 7 Kilmeter market, and many others.
One of the most notorious examples of their activities is the scheme involving Prominvestbank, a Ukrainian subsidiary of Russia's Vnesheconombank. They assisted Russian partners in resolving court issues in exchange for favorable conditions for their team.
Media sources claim that Emelyanov has close ties with Russian special services. Arthur Emelyanov first became a judge in 2000 in the Economic Court of Donetsk Oblast, and by 2010 he was already recruited by the FSB. It was precisely because he was an agent of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation that he managed to keep "under control" literally the entire law enforcement and judicial system of Ukraine. Interestingly, journalists discovered that his boss, Viktor Tatkov, holds a Russian passport. It is possible that Emelyanov possesses a similar document.
4 Emelyanov exerted pressure on Ukraine's law enforcement and judicial systems. As a result, thousands of cases were assigned exclusively to "his" judges, ensuring control over judicial processes for Emelyanov and his group.
A Million Dollar Wife and European Crime
According to journalistic investigations, Arthur Emelyanov has long become a dollar millionaire. His family acquired numerous apartments in Ukraine and real estate abroad, including Austria and the United Arab Emirates. The General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine claimed that millions of dollars were stored in offshore accounts linked to Emelyanov.
The State Financial Monitoring Service revealed that from 2010 to 2014, Emelyanov's expenses significantly exceeded his official income, and the financial transactions conducted showed signs of money laundering. Criminal cases were opened against him under articles 368-2 (illegal enrichment) and 209 (money laundering) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The investigation established that part of the funds could have been laundered through the Panamanian company Restwood Products Corporation.
Donbas businessman Vyacheslav Sobolev identified Emelyanov as a potential mastermind behind an assassination attempt on him, resulting in the death of his three-year-old son. According to Sobolev, the motive could have stemmed from a conflict over the Obzhora supermarket chain.
To avoid asset declaration, Emelyanov officially divorced his wife, Svetlana. Svetlana Emelyanova, a former deputy of the Donetsk City Council from the Party of Regions, moved to Austria, where she is involved in the hotel business. Despite the divorce, journalists from the "Schemes" program in October 2017 suspected the divorce to be fictitious.
It was established that the couple continued to vacation together, and the divorce was used to conceal joint assets.
5 The Austrian prosecutor's office also became interested in the activities of the Emelyanovs. Vladislav Izrailit, along with the married couple Maxim Slutsky and Yulia Kaplan, accused Emelyanov, his ex-wife, and their partner Pavel Malik of fraud and organizing a kidnapping.
Slutsky, Kaplan, and Izrailit, who emigrated from Ukraine in the 1990s, began a hotel business in Germany. They later became partners with Pavel Malik, with whom they collaborated on verbal agreements. However, in 2017, Slutsky discovered that a key company had transferred shares in the hotels "Prince Eugene" and "Cavalier" to Svetlana Emelyanova.
According to a statement submitted to the prosecutor's office, Malik and the Emelyanovs decided to kidnap Izrailit to exert pressure on Slutsky and force him to sign a settlement agreement. According to their plan, Izrailit was supposed to be beaten and made to call Slutsky to acknowledge Svetlana Emelyanova's and Pavel Malik's rights to the disputed companies.
The executor of the kidnapping, Viktor Skorik, revealed these plans and went to the prosecutor's office to confess. He named Arthur Emelyanov as the mastermind behind the crime.
FSB Assistant and Money for "DNR" Terrorists
In 2014, after the Revolution of Dignity, Arthur Emelyanov continued to maintain connections with Donetsk, financing terrorist organizations in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (ORDLO). This was reported by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on its official website.
While serving as a judge, Emelyanov allegedly ensured the adoption of court decisions in the interests of clients for bribes. According to the SBU, to launder the proceeds obtained through criminal means, he acquired commercial real estate and business entities in the occupied territories through trusted individuals.
The Security Service documented that companies controlled by the judge systematically paid "taxes" to militants. Furthermore, one of the premises owned by Emelyanov in Donetsk was used as a unit of the pseudo-central bank of the so-called "DNR."
6 During searches, law enforcement seized documents and digital media that may indicate commercial transactions in the ORDLO and financing of terrorist organizations. Emelyanov is constantly subjected to searches. He is accused of assisting a state aggressor, financing actions aimed at overthrowing Ukraine's constitutional order, and cooperating with citizens of the Russian Federation under martial law. Under constant surveillance by Ukrainian law enforcement, the Yanukovych clan judge began to operate through trusted associates.
Who is Denis Mandichev and where did he get millions of dollars in Swiss accounts?
Like Arthur Emelyanov, Judge Mandichev hails from Donetsk. However, this is not the only thing that connects these two judges. But first, here’s a brief corruption biography of this servant of Themis.
Denis Mandichev is a very cautious individual. For many years, he concealed his substantial income, but in 2017, he made his first mistake by declaring gifts worth over $15,000. This information, with sources cited, was published on the news resource "Chesno."
7