Kyiv, October 2 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The Interior Ministry plans to bring the criminal case against Oleksandr Volkonsky, the alleged organizer of the Elita-Center fraud on the real estate market, to court at the end of 2009 or beginning of 2010, Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko has said.
“The victims and plaintiffs will familiarize themselves with the materials of the case until the end of October, and then Volkonsky and his lawyer will familiarize themselves with them. By the end of 2009 or the beginning 2010, the prosecution plans to bring the case to court,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.
The minister noted that 1,700 people were affected by the fraud and a total sum of losses is UAH 400 million.
At the same time, Lutsenko said that the law doesn’t limit the term for familiarization with materials in a criminal case and that’s why, according to him, it is required to follow the legislation strictly in order for the case to reach its logical end in the court.
“Any hurry will only cause problems,” he said.
Lutsenko also said that Volkonsky wasn’t cooperating with the investigation and had given no evidence about any other people who might be involved in the case.
As reported, a massive scam was uncovered on the real estate market in Kyiv early in 2006. About 1,759 citizens were victims of the Elita-Center Group, the representatives of which took money from the public as payment for housing that was not built. The total sum stolen from the victims was about UAH 400 million.
On November 1, 2007, a suspect in the fraud case, a man named Oleksandr Volkonsky (whose real name turned out to be Oleksandr Shakhov, born in Russia in 1971) was detained in Switzerland. He was extradited from Switzerland to Ukraine on October 9, 2008.
On September 8, a resolution was issued to charge Volkonsky as a defendant in the Elita-Center case. In particular, Shakhov has been accused of creating a criminal organization (Part 1, Article 255 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), appropriating a large amount of property (Part 5, Article 191), committing a crime as part of a criminal group, legalizing illegally received funds (Part 4, Article 28 and Part 3, Article 209), forging documents in a conspiracy by individuals and using deliberately forged documents (Part 2-3, Article 358), as well as forging official documents (Part 1, Article 366).
