Deputy of the Kyiv City Council Olena Marchenko is linked to schemes of cash and real estate legalization, — investigation

Deputy of the Kyiv City Council Olena Marchenko is linked to schemes of cash and real estate legalization, — investigation

A Deputy of the Kyiv City Council from the "Fatherland" party, Olena Marchenko, is mentioned in the investigation by Bihus.Info journalists, which is based on records of wiretapping set up by NABU in the office of Denys Komarnytskyi, who is considered the "overseer" of the capital.

The published audio materials point to her possible involvement in real estate and cash legalization schemes.

According to the recordings, Komarnytskyi’s manager Olena Bohoslavska informed Marchenko about a bonus payment for the "successful completion of one of the projects." The investigation notes that Marchenko was offered a choice: to register an apartment in her name or receive money from its sale. Marchenko allegedly refused to register the real estate due to issues with its future declaration and chose the cash. The amount of the "bonus" mentioned in the conversation was approximately 100,000 U.S. dollars.

Bohoslavska: "I have good news for you. We have closed a project there, and finally, I have agreed on some sort of bonus."
Marchenko: "Well?"
Bohoslavska: "First option – apartment registration. Second option – we put it up for sale and give you the money."
Marchenko: "Only the second option for me, because with my declarations, I won’t sign up for anything."
Bohoslavska: "Look, approximately around a hundred."
Marchenko: "Uh-huh, very pleasant news."

In another conversation, Bohoslavska and Marchenko discussed the "bonus" of parking spaces, which were later received by the deputy’s daughter:

Bohoslavska: "So now this object is being finalized, therefore it’s still square meters in a finished project."
Marchenko: "Very pleasant, good news today."

Fictitious Employment

The records suggest that Marchenko had long-standing difficulties with official income required for filling out declarations. She complained to interlocutors that for two years she had not received any salary, with the only source of legal income being part-time work at the MIA academy with a salary of 15,000 hryvnias per month.

In the dialogues, Marchenko sought ways of official employment to legalize income. She proposed working as a lawyer in companies associated with the construction business, while acknowledging the possibility of a conflict of interest. In a conversation with Komarnytskyi, the deputy emphasized the need for at least partial official employment for formal income declaration.

The investigation also provides fragments where Marchenko talks about fictitious employment in a law firm: according to her, she compensated the company for tax expenses, effectively paying about 100,000 hryvnias per month to get a minimal salary "on paper."

"I am practically without any earnings, because from that lawyer I work for, I haven’t been paid a single penny for a year. I work for them but have 0.0 salary. It’s nonsense. Take me somewhere! They can’t just pay me. I compensated him for everything with taxes: I brought over 100-something thousand each month so they would give me a minimum salary," Marchenko complained in a conversation with Komarnytskyi.

Declaration Analysis

Journalists also analyzed Marchenko’s declarations for 2015-2023. Initially, the deputy declared an apartment in Kyiv, an apartment in Morshyn, several land plots near the capital, an Audi car, about 16,000 dollars in savings, and a family income that at the time was about 70,000 dollars a year.

By 2023, Marchenko’s assets had significantly increased. She declared shares in several companies, two apartments in the "Concordia" club house with an area of 140 square meters each, a house in the "Severynivka" cottage village of 240 square meters, an apartment from "Spetszhytlofond" for renting, as clarified by Bihus.Info, a hectare of land in the Carpathians, and several parking spaces. Part of this property is registered to her relatives – husband, mother, and daughter.