Authority from Kharkiv "Honcharyk" had his prison sentence reduced by one year

Authority from Kharkiv "Honcharyk" had his prison sentence reduced by one year

The Kharkiv Court of Appeals partially satisfied the complaint of 57-year-old criminal authority Mykhailo Honcharenko, known as "Honcharyk," by amending the sentencing verdict for extortion (Part 4 of Article 189 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) of a quarter of a million dollars, issued in the summer of last year, in terms of the punishment assigned - from 8 to 7 years of imprisonment.

This was reported by Detective-Info.

The corresponding verdict was delivered on March 4, 2025, by a panel of judges consisting of presiding judge Oleksandr Kurylo and participant judges - Rostyslav Hertsik and Yuriy Malovanyi.

This high-profile case relates to the clarification of relations among significant business beneficiaries of LLC "NVF "Barkhan", among whom was also the criminal authority Vadym Kazartsev, known as "Knyaz," who passed away in the fall of 2020, his longtime partner, and "Honcharyk" (whose fate was tied to "Knyaz" in a murder case).

It is believed that at least in the summer of 2020, "Honcharyk" finally fell out with "Knyaz". According to the investigation, at the end of 2021, Honcharenko began demanding that the director of "Barkhan," Ruslan Koliadynskyi, pay him $250,000 as a "payout." They filed a blackmail complaint with law enforcement, who caught Honcharenko in the act during the transfer of $150,000 in January 2022 (most of the bills were fake).

Three months later, as reported by Detective-Info, the court released "Honcharyk" on bail, and he disappeared from sight. Fruitless searches for Honcharenko lasted over a year, until May 17, 2023, when he was detained in the Holosiyivskyi district of Kyiv. In June 2024, the trial court sentenced Mykhailo to 8 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.

Honcharenko’s defense appealed the verdict, seeking reclassification of charges from Part 4 to Part 1 of Article 189 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. However, his arguments did not convince the judges, who only reduced the punishment by a year, considering, among other things, his health condition.