The court seized the property of Viktor Medvedchuk's wife, Oksana Marchenko, "suspected of financing Russian occupation groups," worth more than $150 million. This was reported by the Security Service of Ukraine.
According to the department, blocks of shares in three regional energy supply companies were arrested. Marchenko owned them through five offshore companies, the SBU said. Also arrested were 2 land plots, 4 residential buildings in Kyiv and Crimea, and 10 cars belonging to Marchenko. In addition, assets in 18 investment, agro-industrial, telecommunications and other companies were arrested.
In early February, the SBU accused Medvedchuk's wife of financing the Russian Guard – according to the intelligence service, firms from Kiev and Yalta paid for the protection of Putin's godfather's assets in the occupied Crimea.
“In addition, Marchenko’s business structure regularly replenished the Russian budget in the form of paying taxes and fees,” the SBU informed. The amount paid in favor of the aggressor state is estimated at 50 million hryvnia (about 96 million rubles). In the course of the investigation, SBU officers searched 11 properties owned by Marchenko and the offices of companies associated with it.
As the investigation established, Marchenko used the assets of three investment companies in Kyiv to register a company in Yalta with an authorized capital of a billion rubles. This Crimean company signed contracts with the structures of the National Guard and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for their protection. The scheme continued to work after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, also known as Vladimir Putin's godfather, was detained by the SBU in April 2022 after he escaped from house arrest. He was accused of high treason and attempted embezzlement of national resources in Crimea. In September, Medvedchuk was exchanged for the defenders of Azovstal. President Volodymyr Zelensky later stripped him of his Ukrainian citizenship.
