The family of Viktor Tatkov, a fugitive Ukrainian ex-judge who faces criminal charges, own luxury property in Spain, according to an investigation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Schemes investigative project published on Dec. 6.
In the past, Ukrainian courts have sometimes defended Tatkov, who was head of the High Commercial Court under ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. The Supreme Court on Nov. 30 ruled that the Verkhovna Rada’s decision to dismiss Tatkov in 2016 was unlawful due to a violation of its regulations. Tatkov, who was a member of the High Council of Justice under Yanukovych, was fired under the lustration law on the dismissal of top Yanukovych-era officials. He fled to Vienna.
Meanwhile, out of the 127 judges accused of unlawfully trying EuroMaidan activists and subject to lustration, only 12 judges, or 9 percent, have been found to be not worthy of holding a judicial job by the High Qualification Commission of Judges.
Luxury property
Vebelle Royal, a firm owned by Tatkov’s former wife Zoya Tatkova, owns 62 hectares of land with an estimated value of at least 1.9 million euros in the Spanish province of Malaga, RFE/RL reported on Dec. 6.
Tatkova has never been a businesswoman and used to work as a lecturer at Donetsk National University, where her monthly wage amounted to Hr 10,000 or Hr 12,000, according to RFE/RL.
Tatkova, who lives in Russian-occupied Donetsk, told RFE/RL that this was an “error” and that all the assets “have been sold.”
Meanwhile, Iberoglobal Investments, a firm owned by Tatkov’s daughter Olena, owns four apartments in Malaga.
Olena Tatkova used to have a small business in Donetsk but has declared earning less than Hr 1 million since 1998, RFE/RL said, citing sources at the State Fiscal Service.
Previous revelations on Tatkov’s assets
RFE/RL also reported on June 14 that Zoya Tatkova’s company Vebelle Royal owned seven high-end apartments, land and a 600-square-meter villa in Spain’s Malaga province. Tatkova said then she didn’t have any property in Spain.
RFE/RL said that Yaroslava Krasylnykova, Tatkov’s ex-wife, owned a total of 23 properties, including three apartments and a house in Donetsk, an apartment in the city of Alushta in Russian-occupied Crimea and an apartment in Kyiv. Although they are officially divorced, Krasylnykova still lives with Tatkov, according to RFE/RL.
Friends of Tatkov – Yevhenia Katasonova, Valeria Katasonova, Hanna Bratus and Anton Yaitskov – own 20 properties in Kyiv’s high-end Novopecherski Lypky apartment complex, where 1 square meter costs $1,500 to $2,000, RFE/RL said. Tatkov and Krasylnykova have given them powers of attorney to buy and use assets.
Yevhenia Katasonova, who used to work at the High Commercial Court under Tatkov and is under investigation over illegal interference into the automatic distribution of court cases, has fled to Russia.
The income of Krasylnykova and Tatkov’s friends is too low to explain the acquisitions of the high-end property, according to RFE/RL.
In October a Kyiv Court seized about 100 properties belonging to Tatkov’s friends. He is under investigation for unlawful enrichment in Ukraine but has not been officially charged in this case yet.
Charges in Ukraine
However, Tatkov and his ex-deputy Artur Yemelyanov have been officially charged with illegally interfering in the automatic distribution of cases and issuing unlawful rulings under Yanukovych.
Other ex-High Commercial Court’s judges voted to effectively get rid of the automatic distribution of court cases by assigning just one judge to each judicial specialization, which would allow Tatkov and Yemelyanov to handpick judges for cases that they wanted to profit from, according to Vitaly Tytych, ex-coordinator of the Public Integrity Council, the judiciary’s civil society watchdog.
Bohdan Lvov, current deputy head of the Supreme Court and a former judge at the High Commercial Court under Tatkov, and several other current Supreme Court judges who used to work at the High Commercial Court are also under investigation in the Tatkov-Yemelyanov case. However, they have not been officially charged yet and have denied the accusations of wrongdoing.
Several ex-High Commercial Court judges who are under investigation in the case are currently competing for extra jobs at the Supreme Court.
