In the case of the former head of the Supreme Court, a new figure has emerged: Zhevaho’s lawyer received a suspicion

Last week, it became known that in the corruption case involving the former head of the Supreme Court, another suspect appeared, who is being assigned the role of an accomplice in the transfer of unlawful benefits.

The suspicion was received by lawyer Anatoliy Rekun, who works for businessman Kostyantyn Zhevaho, according to the publication «Sudy Reporter». For serious corruption, he faces from 5 to 10 years in prison.

The details of the investigation became known during the sessions of the High Anti-Corruption Court, which for three days with interruptions considered the request for a preventive measure. The prosecutor requested a preventive measure for the suspect in the form of a 30 million hryvnia bail, but the court determined only 10 million.

Lawyers for Zhevaho

The background of this case began in 2022 when the Northern Court of Appeal, on the complaint of Ihor Kolomoiskyi’s structures, invalidated a 20-year-old contract for Zhevaho’s acquisition of 40% of the shares of the "Poltava Mining and Processing Plant".

According to detectives, Zhevaho intended to offer unlawful benefits to the judges of the Supreme Court to cancel this decision.

At that time, Zhevaho was living abroad, while in Ukraine he already had a criminal case regarding the embezzlement of funds from the "Finance and Credit" bank. In 2022-2023, a request from Ukraine for his extradition was under consideration in France.

The NABU claims that the businessman, for "objective reasons", could not independently transfer the funds to the judges. Therefore, he involved accomplices.

Zhevaho’s business was serviced by many different lawyers. Lawyer Oleh Horetskyi, learning about the difficult situation with the "Poltava MPP", allegedly offered his services himself. And probably not by chance. Because in Horetskyi’s legal firm’s office, there was a notary, Kyrylo Horburov’s cabinet, who was a childhood friend of the head of the Supreme Court, Vsevolod Knyazyev, and was considered to be his "wallet".

In early March 2023, Chairman of the Supreme Court Vsevolod Knyazyev allegedly was made aware of Zhevaho’s desire to pay for a court decision.

NABU documented Horburov’s visits with bags to Knyazyev’s apartment. The last time, on May 15, 2023, when detectives broke into the apartment, there was a "remaining" 450 thousand dollars out of a total of 2 million in the bag.

Knyazyev and Horetskyi were caught red-handed. Horburov, it turned out, began cooperating with NABU in time and avoided responsibility. Zhevaho was notified of suspicion on the territory of France as part of international legal assistance.

After several months in a detention facility, Horetskyi went for a plea deal, donated several dozen million to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and pledged to give incriminating testimony.

In 2024, the case against the former head of the Supreme Court, Knyazyev, began to be considered substantively in the High Anti-Corruption Court.

The lawyer of businessman Zhevaho, Anatoliy Rekun, has already been mentioned in these sessions. In the indictment against Knyazyev, it is written that on March 8, 2023, at the law firm "Finance and Credit Lex", in the presence of lawyer Rekun, Horetskyi had a video conference with Zhevaho, who confirmed the intent to bribe. During the review of the materials from the operational-search measures, the prosecutor also mentioned that the money was transferred through lawyer Rekun with the involvement of Horetskyi’s driver. However, despite such formulations, they were in no hurry to present suspicions to anyone else.

Lawyer Rekun went from being a witness to a suspect only 2.5 years after the high-profile exposure of the corruption scheme.

"Tolik will hand over the documents"

During the selection of the preventive measure, the prosecutor quoted several conversations from the operational-search case about how the process of money transfer, which was euphemistically called documents or letters, was agreed upon.

"If the documents are available today, we’ll pass them through Tolik. If not, then at the latest tomorrow," Zhevaho promised Horetskyi on March 23, 2023.

On April 6, 2023, Zhevaho again communicated with Horetskyi: "I’m saying that Tolik will now hand over the documents. If possible, please pick them up. We’ll call you by the end of the day. There should be 400 sheets of documents. We’ll check the numbers by the end of the day."

The prosecutor also stated that on March 13, 2023, Rekun personally visited Horetskyi’s office and handed him $800,000, which was counted in his presence. If this is true, then the detectives should have had this information much earlier.

The investigating judge asked the prosecutor about this, and he diplomatically responded that, of course, it’s not true that nothing was done for the last 2.5 years and assured that investigative actions were actually ongoing during all this time.

_{The suspect with his defender}

Lawyer Maksym Soroka defended Rekun during the selection of the preventive measure. He believes the suspicion is unfounded and the gathered evidence is inadmissible.

The conversations of the participants were recorded without registering a criminal proceeding as part of an operational-search case that was initiated on November 7, 2022. Operational measures began 4-5 months before Zhevaho, according to the investigation, formed the intent to provide an unlawful benefit. The grounds on which the operational-search case was initiated are unknown. For several months, operatives recorded the conversations and did not intervene or stop possible illegal activities. Criminal proceedings were registered only two weeks before Knyazyev’s exposure.

Moreover, the evidence could have been gathered in violation of attorney-client privilege. After all, Horetskyi and Rekun communicated with Zhevaho as his lawyers.

— It does not appear that Horetskyi and Tolik (Rekun is called Tolik in the conversations with Zhevaho) were handling the case in the Economic Court, which was under consideration by the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court. On the contrary, the case was handled by the lawyers of the "Ilyashev & Partners" company, as suggested for conspiracy purposes, Horetskyi and his legal association should not have been involved in the court case regarding the "Poltava MPP". Publicly, Zhevaho was indeed represented in court by "Ilyashev & Partners".

In another instance, a lost tax case for the "Poltava MPP" was discussed, and Zhevaho asked Horetskyi to take it on. And he said that the materials would be passed on to him through Tolik ("If the documents are available today, we’ll pass them through Tolik").

Therefore, when on April 6, 2023, Zhevaho warned Horetskyi that Tolik would hand him 400 sheets of documents, allegedly, this could have been related to the tax case.

The lawyer notes that "Tolik" is not involved in the conversations between Zhevaho and Horetskyi. On the contrary, Zhevaho asks him to disconnect after the conversation begins.

63-year-old lawyer Rekun denies involvement in the corruption agreements.

— Zhevaho is indeed my client. Unlike others, he is a very decent person. Why do I say this?! The decision of the Shevchenkivskyi court [in Kyiv] to collect 1.5 billion hryvnias from Zhevaho because he vouched to the National Bank. I told Zhevaho that the legislation is structured so that you will not have to comply with this. To which Zhevaho replied: "No, I won’t do that, because I am not Kolomoiskyi. I will pay."

Lawyer Soroka expressed the opinion that suspicion by NABU might also be inclining his client to make a deal and provide testimony against Zhevaho.

But Rekun categorically states that he will never abandon his client, whether he is more holy than the Pope or not.

— I will work with my client, even if the whole world has turned away from him. I have never been a mule — that is, someone who carries money. And I don’t have to attach that to me. And I am here because, unlike my colleague (Horetskyi), I didn’t want to turn into a being who has completely lost any human dignity. I understand that when you make promises and so that nothing happens to you, to protect yourself, you need to give testimony… I don’t know what a person thinks when they give different testimony, give second ones earlier, give different testimony in court.

Personal motives of Horetskyi and evidence against lawyers

Suspect Rekun and his defender say that the main evidence in the case turned out to be the testimony of former lawyer Horetskyi, who entered into an agreement with law enforcement. Moreover, these testimonies allegedly were repeatedly changed and had personal motives for doing so. How exactly they changed is not specified because the agreement with Horetskyi was approved in a closed session.

In the materials of the case, there is only the interrogation of Horetskyi dated February 23, 2024 — several months after the approval of the agreement and the day after the opening of proceedings by the Supreme Court on complaints from the lawyers of Knyazyev and Zhevaho.

Indeed, the defenders of businessman Zhevaho and the former head of the Supreme Court continue to attempt to appeal the lenient sentence for Horetskyi, who became a key witness for the prosecution against their clients. The Appellate Chamber of the HACC has twice refused to appeal the sentence regarding Horetskyi. Currently, in the Supreme Court, the case for complaints by Zhevaho’s defenders is again open.

Zhevaho’s lawyer, who is appealing Horetskyi’s sentence, Nataliya Pushyna is Rekun’s partner.

— He (Horetskyi) transmitted through Pushyna, with whom we live as a family, threats to change his previous testimony given during the pre-trial investigation regarding me. They differ from what is currently in the case materials… I am afraid that I will become the main figure in this case instead of Horetskyi, Rekun told the court session.

Lawyer Pushyna testified during the selection of a preventive measure.

— As the defence for Mr. Zhevaho, we are constantly under pressure. This applies to all lawyers without exception. This is an invasion of personal life, gathering information about lawyers, this is passing information on lawyers to Horetskyi for use in their own needs.

The prosecutor stated in the court session that after the detention of Knyazyev and Horetskyi, Rekun organized a meeting in Paris with lawyer Vitaliy Naum, who was representing Horetskyi at that time, with Zhevaho. At the meeting were present Zhevaho’s lawyer, Nataliya Pushyna, and Rekun himself. NABU suspects that the possibility of Horetskyi not entering into a plea agreement could have been discussed at that time.

The detective learned about the trip from the border service information about the joint crossing of the border by Rekun, Naum, and Pushyna on September 5, 2023, and about returning in the opposite direction on September 9. The car the lawyers traveled in belongs to a member of the Ukrainian Parliament. According to the prosecutor, questioned by the competent authorities of the French Republic, Zhevaho confirmed the fact of the meeting.

Rekun and Pushyna claim that detectives illegally collected this information about lawyers and even shared it with Horetskyi. A criminal case has been initiated about this, and several lawyers, including Rekun, have been recognized as victims. It is about obtaining information from the customs and border service regarding the crossing of the border by lawyers. Also, in that criminal case, supposedly the forgery of signatures by Horetskyi is being investigated.

In 2024, Horetskyi tried to initiate bringing Zhevaho’s lawyer, Radyslav Tkachenko, to disciplinary responsibility. And at the same time allegedly using information previously collected by NABU.

— Information was collected not only regarding me, Rekun says. — This information was collected regarding Member of Parliament Labunska, collected against lawyer Naum, who indeed crossed the border with me. I have known Naum for a very long time, and we have been handling one high-profile case together… and we have at least three such cases. And one of them is under consideration in the HACC. Naum did not cross to communicate with Zhevaho. He has clients in France, in Switzerland. I also traveled to seminars in Strasbourg because I love my work as a lawyer. And I consider it necessary. And the demonization of my knowledge by the prosecution is unfortunate and a mistake.

Lawyer Pushyna drew the investigating judge’s attention to the fact that the suspicion of Rekun appeared on September 3, 202 5, when the court went to the deliberation room on the motion regarding the special investigation into Zhevaho. NABU allegedly anticipated that they would be refused. Lawyer Pushyna suggested that through Rekun, the investigation is trying to connect all the figures and avoid their discreditation in the eyes of the public. And these events are also happening before the court in France regarding the extradition of Zhevaho and the next session in the Supreme Court on complaints against Horetskyi’s sentence.

Author: Iryna Saliy