How the major evader Oleksandr Slobozhenko slipped out of the hands of law enforcement and deceived everyone

How the major evader Oleksandr Slobozhenko slipped out of the hands of law enforcement and deceived everyone

The figures in high-profile criminal cases flee, investigators throw up their hands. This is how one could summarize what periodically happens with high-profile cases in Ukraine. Dmytruk, Beryoza, Arestovych, Boholyubov, Slobozhenko – this list could go on, but the essence is the same: when cases against some individuals become serious, they manage to flee abroad. And no restrictions due to martial law in Ukraine apply to them.

In this study, NGL.media will tell the case of the investigation of the high-profile case of a young successful businessman and blogger Oleksandr Slobozhenko, to clearly show that coincidences don’t happen, and the punishment system in Ukraine really works selectively. And if it seems to you that certain pieces of the case do not fit together – you are probably right.

Many questions, few answers

It all started on April 26, 2023. On that day, detectives from the Bureau of Economic Security (BES) opened a criminal case against the young and successful arbitration entrepreneur Oleksandr Slobozhenko, suspecting him of tax evasion. Opening a case does not equal proof of guilt, so from that moment, BES detectives under the supervision of the prosecutor’s office had to work on the evidence base. They conducted searches in Slobozhenko’s Kyiv home, documenting the process with photos as is customary in such cases. However, no press releases or official reports about the searches or the case of Slobozhenko were published by law enforcement officers until August 16, 2024.

Meanwhile, Oleksandr Slobozhenko was traveling around the world, having fun, giving interviews, where he openly talked about the criminal case and searches, openly mocking the charges.

It was no longer a joke in the spring of 2024. After the publication of an investigation by the journalist of "UP" Mykhailo Tkach about the entertainments of a 25-year-old businessman abroad, he disappeared from the information space, publishing a one-hour response to this investigation.

The next important date in this story is August 16, 2024. On this day, BES and the Prosecutor General’s Office reported that Slobozhenko was handed an official suspicion of tax evasion totaling 213 million UAH. These reports became the first official public information about this case.

BES published old photos from searches with Oleksandr Slobozhenko with the news of announcing a suspicion on August 15

In the official BES "Telegram" channel, the message about announcing the suspicion was illustrated with photos of Slobozhenko, surrounded by BES detectives signing some documents.

Announcing the suspicion means that the investigation has gathered enough evidence for the court to decide on a preventive measure. Considering the seriousness of the accusation, after the suspicion is announced, Slobozhenko should have been detained, and the court in the coming days should have decided on a preventive measure until the final verdict – detention without bail or setting the amount of bail.

But everything went awry.

On August 21, less than a week after the suspicion was announced, according to BES and the Prosecutor General’s Office, Oleksandr Slobozhenko was spotted in Warsaw. The published photos by "UP" photo raised legitimate questions – how, after being officially accused of a serious economic crime, could he travel abroad?

Ukrainian law enforcement did not publicly mention the Slobozhenko case until September 2, when the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv decided on a preventive measure in this case – detention without the possibility of bail. On the same day, reporting this court decision, BES and the Prosecutor General’s Office casually remembered that Slobozhenko is wanted.

This only exacerbated suspicions that Slobozhenko was simply allowed to flee the country. It was these suspicions that prompted NGL.media to delve deeper into this situation. Honestly, the answer turned out to be simpler than we imagined.

Deception and manipulation

According to NGL.media, Oleksandr Slobozhenko last crossed the border this spring. On March 28, he left on the Kyiv-Warsaw train and has not returned to Ukraine since. Piecing the puzzle together: the young businessman left Ukraine at the end of March and received the suspicion almost five months later – on August 16. He did not officially cross the border back into Ukraine, but he is present in the photos of receiving the suspicion. How is that possible?

Our first theory was that Slobozhenko crossed the border unofficially, like, for example, the People’s Deputy Artem Dmytruk. But we rejected it because it turned out that Slobozhenko did not bother as much.

It turned out that BES and the Prosecutor General’s Office simply manipulated public opinion to create the impression that Slobozhenko personally received the suspicion. The day before, on August 15, an official suspicion was indeed announced, but not to him, but to his relative. And the next day, public messages about it were illustrated with last year’s photos of searches of Slobozhenko’s apartment. These photos had not been published before, so they naturally were perceived as current.

So for some reason, BES detectives, along with the Prosecutor General’s Office, falsify facts, manipulate, and distort reality.

"This is not the information that should be 100% published"

"According to the law, a person is taken into custody when there is a risk that they will evade investigation and court, i.e., may flee. If a person is suspected of committing a serious crime, then when the suspicion is announced, the person is either immediately detained or a petition is handed over to decide on a preventive measure, and within three hours, not later than the next day, this petition is considered", explains lawyer Svitlana Ilnytska.

Could BES detectives have hoped that Slobozhenko would return to Ukraine before the preventive measure was chosen, and they would not have to explain anything? Or was it a special operation to confuse the Russian FSB, which, according to Slobozhenko, is actively hunting him?

NGL.media tried to get a comment from BES detective Ruslan Kozyura, who filed a petition in court for Slobozhenko’s preventive measure, but he refused to talk without a request to the press service.

However, it turned out that BES does not see a problem in withholding important information and using misleading photos. At least, this conclusion can be drawn from the comment of the official BES spokesperson.

"About the photos. In our message, not only the announcement of the suspicion was mentioned, but also that preliminary investigative actions like searches were conducted [2023]. Therefore, we published these photos for illustration", explained in a comment to NGL.media BES speaker Olena Matveyeva. "As for announcing the suspicion in absentia. This is not the information that should be 100% published. Press releases are not official documents where it is necessary to indicate something like the article under which the criminal case is being investigated and other details. If someone wants to know the details, we can explain or respond to a request".

Instead of conclusions

The criminal case against Oleksandr Slobozhenko has existed since the spring of 2023, and he was removed from military registration in October 2022. Hence, before the announcement of suspicion, he could travel abroad without restrictions. The official suspicion was announced to him in absentia, almost five months after his last departure from Ukraine, when it became clear he was unlikely to return. Obviously, after the public attention to him due to media coverage, the information about the suspicion was presented manipulatively, without important details and explanations.

The criminal case currently led by BES concerns Oleksandr Slobozhenko and his accountant personally. The arbitration traffic company Traffic Devils officially belongs to other individuals now. Since May 2024, Slobozhenko ceased being the owner of LLC "Traffic Devils" in favor of 25-year-old Dnipro resident Dmytro Hnitylenko, and Slobozhenko’s mother, Iryna Zver, was replaced as director by 22-year-old Dnipro resident Dariya Vyshnevetska. In the same period, another Dnipro resident, Vladyslav Stepanets, became the owner of another Slobozhenko company - "Traffic Devils Agency".

And since the end of last year, Traffic Devils has been a resident of the government’s Diya.City programme, which provides tax breaks and other assistance from the state. So it looks like everything will be fine for Slobozhenko and his friends.

Moreover, four years ago, a similar case of tax evasion was opened against Slobozhenko, with the amount of tax owed being almost UAH 55 million. As we reported earlier, that case "fell apart" at the pre-trial investigation stage, and he was returned the property seized during the searches.

Author: Kateryna Rodak, editor Oleh Onysko

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