The family of a top security officer has gained ownership of a huge amount of expensive real estate over the past four years, according to a report by Ukrainian journalists.
Investigative journalists from the Bihus.info website found that relatives of the first deputy head of Foreign Intelligence Service, Serhiy Semochko, have Russian passports and visit Russian-occupied Crimea regularly. His family owns million worth real estate near Kyiv, which they obtained after the Kremlin launched its war on Ukraine in the country’s eastern Donbas region.
Semochko has had a long career with the security agency. Before taking his current position, the Crimea-born Semochko served as the head of the economic counterintelligence department of the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, and later the head of the SBU’s Kyiv office.
President Petro Poroshenko appointed him as first deputy head of the Foreign Intelligence Service on July 31.
A video detailing the results of the journalists’ investigation was posted online on Oct. 1. Neither the SBU or any other top officials have so far commented on the allegations made by the journalists. Semochko and the SBU did not respond to requests from the Kyiv Post for comment.
Yehor Soboliev, a lawmaker from the 26-member Samopomich Party, asked in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, for SBU Head Yaroslav Hrytsak to come to parliament on Oct. 3 and explain to lawmakers how Semochko had come by his fortune.
“The journalists found out that Semochko only obtained real estate worth millions of dollars in the last few years, the years of war,” Soboliev said.
As it is not easy for internally displaced people to move from Crimea and settle somewhere new, there is “no chance to get property in such amounts without selling the national interests of Ukraine in wartime,” Soboliev said.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau announced on Oct. 3 that it had opened a criminal case against Semochko, based on the investigation by the journalists. Semochko is suspected of illegal enrichment, the bureau said.
Findings
Unlike other state officials, the electronic asset declarations of intelligence officers, detailing their income, real estate, and family fortunes, are not publicly accessible.
To uncover Semochko’s fortune, investigative journalist Lesia Ivanova followed the car he used, analyzed social media accounts belonging to his relatives, and used a drone to observe his property from the air.
Ivanova found that he rides on Toyota Land Cruiser to a house in the wealthy neighborhood Koncha-Zaspa, owned by Tetiana Lysenko. Her daughter owns two other pieces of real estate worth millions of dollars and all bought in 2017.
The journalists found evidence that Semochko and Lysenko are a couple, and have a child together. One of the links dates to 2013, when they both privatized two land plots next to each other in Yalta, in Russian-occupied Crimea.
According to the journalists, Semochko, Lysenko and her children do not officially earn enough money to buy real estate worth a total of Hr 200 million.
The journalists alleged that to make the fortune, Semochko and his department had blocked the international procurement of medicines to treat kidney disease.
While serving as head of the economic counterintelligence department, Semochko signed documents to prevent the procurement of drugs needed for dialysis, the procedure required by patients suffering from kidney failure. These drugs are provided by the state under the state medical insurance program. Once patients start using these particular medicines – produced by American company Baxter – they cannot for medical reasons switch to using alternative medications.
Journalists allege that procurement of these drugs was blocked on Semochko’s orders, advising that alternative medications be procured instead.
Serhiy Hrystynchenko, the head of a department of the Diavita medical equipment company, claimed that Semochko’s economic counterintelligence department at the SBU demanded a bribe to restore supply of medications.
Around 200 people died because they were unable to get their medications in time, Hrystynchenko said.
Russian passports
Semochko’s family also appear to have obtained Russian citizenship.
Pictures of the data pages of the passports of three of Semochko’s relatives – Lysenko, her daughter Anastasia Koton, and son-in-law Volodymyr Koton – were leaked on Facebook in August. Bihus.info journalists were able to confirm the authenticity of two of the three passports through the Russian tax service website. They also found that other relatives of Semochko had apparently obtained Russian passports.
In total, eight Semochko’s relatives allegedly have Russian citizenship, the journalists claim.
This story was updated to include reaction from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.
