Serhiy Semochko, first deputy head of the Foreign Intelligence Service and a former Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) official, on Oct. 16 admitted that his wife Tetiana Lysenko owns a luxury house but denied any wrongdoing.
“I didn’t see any confirmation or evidence,” he told ZIK television, commenting on an investigation by the Bihus.info journalism project about his family’s assets. “This information doesn’t correspond to reality.”
Semochko had previously refused to comment on the accusations since the investigation came out on Oct. 1.
Houses
Lysenko owns one luxury house in Kyiv’s high-end suburb of Kozyn, while her daughter, Anastasia Koton, owns two high-end houses there, according to Bihus.info. The houses have an estimated combined value of $8 million.
Semochko admitted that Lysenko owns one of the luxury houses, arguing that she had used income from her tourism business in Crimea to fund the purchase.
Semochko declined to comment on the assets of Koton and other relatives, saying they were adults and were living independently.
His explanations on the sources of funding contradict the findings of the journalists.
According to Bihus.info, Lysenko’s income amounted to $135,000 in 2010 through 2018, while Koton’s income totaled $59,000 during the period, and the income of other relatives was negligible.
Semochko has never been a businessman, and an SBU officer’s salary is not sufficient to buy such assets. Given SBU Chief Vasyl Hrytsak’s $1,500 official salary in 2015, it would take him 120 years to buy one of the houses of Semochko’s family, according to Bihus.info.
Other property
Bihus.info also filmed Semochko driving a high-end Land Cruiser both during his stint as an SBU official and as a deputy head of the Foreign Intelligence Service.
He claimed that the Land Cruiser was government-owned.
Moreover, Bihus.info published three photos of Koton and Lysenko’s son, Stanislav Lysenko, with the same blue helicopter at different times in Kyiv and Odesa. A flight from Kyiv to Odesa on board such a helicopter costs $6,000.
Commenting on the photos of the helicopter, Semochko compared them to someone photographed when passing by a vehicle and then mistakenly passed off as the vehicle’s owner.
Russian passports
The Bihus.info project also published copies of Russian passports of Lysenko, her daughter Koton, and son-in-law Volodymyr Koton. The authenticity of the passports of Lysenko and Volodymyr Koton was confirmed by Bihus.info through the site of Russia’s Federal Tax Service, which also means they are registered as Russian taxpayers.
Lysenko’s son Stanislav is also registered as an individual entrepreneur in Russia.
Semochko said that neither he nor Lysenko had any passports other than the Ukrainian ones.
Semochko said he would not comment on the passports of Anastasia Koton, Volodymyr Koton and Stanislav Lysenko. He added, however, that many residents of annexed Crimea had been “automatically” registered as Russian citizens.
This leaves the question of whether his relatives could have been “automatically” registered as Russian taxpayers and individual entrepreneurs as well.
