The story of the "golden draft dodger" Slobozhenko

As UP writes, Slobozhenko is not only a “golden draft dodger” (“bought off” military registration removal), but also has tax hiding problems and works for grey gambling companies. Journalists discovered that Slobozhenko and his friends Vadym Herasymenko and Artur Bershadskyi, who are “unfit for military service”, constantly travel abroad and have fun at European resorts during martial law. Another character from this company crosses the border as a volunteer via the “Path” system.

The essence of Slobozhenko’s business is “traffic arbitration, mainly in the fields of gambling and betting.” In plain language: he brings clients to advertisers’ websites or apps and gets paid. His main clients are the gambling business. Traffic Devils became a mega-entity in this market during the peak of gambling prosperity (2019 – 2023).

There is one story that is now catching up with Slobozhenko. Investigators point out that by exploiting a glitch in the SPENDGE virtual bank card creation service, Slobozhenko’s company likely conducted a series of fraudulent transactions. In nearly two months of 2022 – from March to May, Traffic Devils employees created a certain number of payments totaling almost 26 million euros for Facebook advertising. However, Slobozhenko’s people had only a meager 259 thousand euros deducted from their balance. The underpaid amount for payments conducted by Traffic Devils employees is over 25.6 million euros. Moreover, Traffic Devils team representatives appeared at a “gathering” in Moscow in April, which Russian sites wrote about. It is claimed that on December 5, 2023, a meeting with Traffic Devils employees – team lead Oleh (aka Vasyl Kit) and Semen – took place on the Russian WelcomePartners channel. There, they shared experiences of successful “deals,” among other things.

Interestingly, in the past, Slobozhenko managed to get away clean and close a criminal case where he was charged with over 54 million in debts. However, in 2023, the BES opened a criminal case – on suspicion of tax evasion (Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), organizing gambling (Art. 203-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), and laundering proceeds from crime on a particularly large scale (Art. 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). By the way, Slobozhenko himself stated that he plans to pay the accrued taxes to the state budget. In essence, he admitted to the crime.

Knowledgeable people say that Slobozhenko overestimated himself and his “senior comrades” who protected him from trouble. The gambling business began to feel pressure. By the beginning of 2024, Slobozhenko’s company was experiencing problems not only with traditional clients but also excessive scrutiny from law enforcement. Investigative journalists took an interest in Slobozhenko personally, uncovering not only his exemption from military conscription but also that Slobozhenko himself owns virtually nothing. Everything is registered under relatives, even his publicized car fleet. His connections to Russia were exposed.

Slobozhenko’s attempts to boast about his cool volunteer activities failed. Alongside a Lamborghini Urus, Ferrari 488 Spider, Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG, BMW M5, Audi RS6, Porsche Panamera, an old 2010 jeep, and a dozen light drones he passed to the military looked futile.