The companies of Oksana Marchenko, the wife of Viktor Medvedchuk, a suspected high treason MP, are suspected of financing the Russian Interior Ministry and the Russian Guard. Marchenko is the ultimate beneficiary of a network of Kyiv companies and a company in Yalta that transferred millions of dollars to the accounts of the Russian Guard and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in occupied Crimea.
These firms paid Russians allegedly for the "protection of Medvedchuk's real estate in Crimea," the SBU press service said. Marchenko's business structure also paid taxes to the Russian budget.
"The total amount of payments made to the aggressor country is more than UAH 50 million in hryvnya equivalent," the SBU said.
To implement the scheme, Oksana Marchenko registered a company in Yalta with an authorized capital of more than 1 billion Russian rubles. To create it, she used the assets of three controlled investment companies located in Kyiv.
The "Crimean" firm then signed the relevant "security" agreements with the structures of the Russian Guard and the Russian Interior Ministry.
After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, Marchenko's company continued to finance the Russian budget.
During 11 searches of Medvedchuk's wife's real estate, the offices of her Kyiv-based companies, and the residences of their top managers, SBU officers found:
- documents, computers, flash drives and cell phones with evidence of the transactions,
- seals and bank cards used in illegal activities.
Based on the evidence collected, SBU investigators served Oksana Marchenko and the head of an affiliated company in Crimea a notice of suspicion under Part 3 of Article 110-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (financing actions aimed at violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order or seizure of state power, change of the borders of the territory or state border of Ukraine).
Oksana Marchenko left Ukraine shortly before the full-scale invasion. Her arrested husband tried to escape but was intercepted by law enforcement. He was then sent to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange.