Jaguar for $90,000 and two BMW: how prosecutor Oleksandr Kharlov amassed luxury assets after the “Graff” Robbery

Oleksandr Kharlov is relatively new to the prosecution service, but he has already become well known for knowing how to derail a case, open criminal proceedings against the “right” person, harass victims of corporate conflicts, and so on.

His experience in “twisting the arm” of the law and turning black into white was apparently appreciated almost as soon as he entered the law enforcement system. This is precisely how he came to hold the position of Deputy Prosecutor of Kyiv’s Pecherskyi District.

In particular, Kharlov’s record includes a murky story involving the theft of jewelry by prosecutors and investigators of the Pecherskyi District Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs during searches at Kyiv’s “Graff” jewelry store. After the investigative operations were completed, jewelry worth UAH 26 million was reportedly missing. This figure reflects the value of the losses at the exchange rate prevailing at the end of 2013.

Three criminal proceedings were opened over the theft and alleged abuse of authority by employees of the Pecherskyi District Prosecutor’s Office. Employees of the Pecherskyi District Prosecutor’s Office in Kyiv, P.B. Kozlov and V.V. Savchuk, as well as officers of the Pecherskyi District Police Department — V.V. Zabuha, O.M. Zhdanov, R.M. Artsiukh, R.V. Kobernyk and V.I. Tsehelnyk — were served with notices of suspicion under Part 5 of Article 185 and Part 3 of Article 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Kozlov and Zabuha were arrested, but not for long. Their bail amounts were reduced, allowing the alleged “werewolves in uniform” to walk free. The same happened with suspects Artsiukh and Kobernyk. Former police officer Tsehelnyk, immediately after being served with a notice of suspicion, promptly decided to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

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These criminal proceedings have been sitting in Kyiv’s Pecherskyi District Court for almost six years, yet the court has still not proceeded to hear them on the merits. All of the individuals involved, without exception, have continued to hold positions within law enforcement agencies.

The financial situation of all those involved improved dramatically after the aforementioned “investigative operations.” Pavlo Kozlov, a prosecutor at the Pecherskyi District Prosecutor’s Office who allegedly fabricated the case that served as the basis for the search, became the owner of a Mitsubishi SUV and two apartments in Kyiv just one week after the robbery. No seizure order was ever imposed on this property.

And what happened to the jewelry stolen from the businessman, you may ask? By a decision of the Commercial Court of Kyiv dated December 18, 2018, the equivalent of almost $4 million was awarded to the victim from Ukraine’s state budget as compensation for the losses (case No. 910/7960/18).

Following this robbery, Oleksandr Kharlov purchased a brand-new 2013 Jaguar XF worth approximately $90,000. He subsequently became head of the department supervising criminal proceedings at the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office.

It was from this position that he “authoritatively” declared to Ukrainska Pravda that the first victims of the clashes on Hrushevskoho Street were supposedly killed by Maidan protesters themselves.

Kharlov not only helped the “werewolves in uniform” escape accountability in the Graff case — he also easily avoided lustration. After getting married, cash holdings and brand-new cars began appearing in his asset declarations as if he were a cryptocurrency tycoon.

In 2015, Kharlov purchased a Nissan Juke for UAH 350,000 for himself and a Toyota Camry for UAH 205,000 for his wife, Kateryna, who also worked at the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office. After the birth of their two sons, she left the prosecutor’s office and began developing her own legal practice. In effect, she acts as a “fixer” for her husband’s business interests.

In his latest asset declaration, Kharlov was also forced to disclose a house purchased in 2016 and registered in the name of his retirement-age mother. The property, located in the village of Pukhivka in the Brovary district, has an area of more than 131 square meters. Its market value exceeds $500,000.

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At the same time, he effortlessly upgraded his car fleet for around UAH 1.5 million, purchasing a 2016 BMW X1 and a 2017 BMW 528 GT.

It was during the final years of Kharlov’s work in the prosecutor’s office that his retired mother effectively became a dollar millionaire. She owns three plots of land in the suburbs of Kyiv, four apartments in the center of the capital, including properties in the Central Park and Elyseum residential complexes, as well as around a dozen parking spaces acquired over the past three years.

The value of the real estate alone registered in the name of the pensioner, Halyna Kharlova, exceeds $2 million. This includes up to 0.3 hectares of land that was allocated to Kharlov free of charge back in 2007, including property in the elite village of Vyshenky in the Boryspil district.

Retired Halyna Kharlova’s “personal” car collection also includes several luxury SUVs, including a Land Rover and a Range Rover, each worth more than $100,000. She also owns a 2016 Volkswagen Multivan valued at around $90,000. Apparently, “mom likes speed.”

Meanwhile, a 2016 BMW X6 worth more than $100,000 is registered in the name of an otherwise unremarkable Eduard Tomin. The vehicle, however, is reportedly used primarily by the “gifted” Pecherskyi prosecutor himself.

Ось переклад англійською в тому ж стилі:

The Kharlov family appears to have a particular fondness for the license plate combination “AA 00-21,” which has been used on the aforementioned vehicles.

Kharlov’s reputation was hanging by a thread in 2017, when the Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of Prosecutors brought disciplinary proceedings against his subordinate, O.V. Kokoshko. Kharlov himself somehow managed to emerge from the scandal unscathed.

Why did the QDCP take an interest in them? Kharlov and his subordinate had apparently managed to skillfully “lose” materials concerning physical evidence in criminal proceeding No. 12014100050006464 dated February 2, 2014. The case involved more than $120,000 in cash in various currencies that investigators from the investigative department of the Obolonskyi District Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kyiv had seized and officially recognized as physical evidence.

Naturally, this “physical evidence” was allegedly appropriated, while the case materials were sent to Oleksandr Kharlov — a master at making cases “disappear” — at the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office.

At the end of 2018, Kharlov reportedly defended a dissertation at the private higher education institution European University and obtained the academic degree of Candidate of Legal Sciences. His dissertation was titled “Investigation of Crimes in the Sphere of Professional Activities Related to the Provision of Public Services.” In February 2019, he also completed an adaptation course to qualify as an attorney.

According to the allegations presented in the original publication, virtually no part of Kharlov’s dissertation was left untouched by material copied from other academic works, including Russian publications, which he allegedly presented as his own academic work.

However, this deserves a separate publication accompanied by an extensive textual analysis.

Author: Oleh Boiko