The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine has filed a lawsuit with the High Anti-Corruption Court to confiscate the assets of the so-called “head of the Kherson Regional State Administration” Volodymyr Saldo. This was reported on the website of the Judiciary of Ukraine.
The third parties in the case are: Saldo’s wife and daughter, Lyubov Petrovna and Iryna Saldo; Vitaliy Sinkov; Bebko-Auto LLC; KONKA LLC, KASHTAN PJSC; and Delta Service PJSC.
In particular, the confiscation of such assets may be considered:
Bebko-Auto LLC in Kherson. The authorized capital of the company is UAH 1,800,000.00. The network of car dealerships is a dealer for the sale and repair of Volvo cars. The company’s ultimate beneficiaries include the collaborator’s daughter Iryna Saldo, Vyacheslav Bebko and Anton Kushnir. According to media reports, Iryna Saldo lives in Nice (France) and leads a luxurious lifestyle.
KONKA LLC in Kherson, which organizes leisure activities. Among the founders of the company are Iryna Saldo, as well as Oleksandr Bolbot, Volodymyr Dydin and Hanna Klimentenko. The authorized capital of the company is UAH 18,500, and its revenue in 2020 amounted to UAH 707,300.
KASHTAN PJSC is located in Korostyshiv district, Zhytomyr region. The company specializes in the extraction of decorative and building stone, limestone, gypsum, chalk, and clay shale. The authorized capital is UAH 370,000.00. Among the founders is Lyubov Saldo, Mr. Saldo’s wife. Notably, in January 2023, law enforcement officers notified the company’s director, Ihor Kolpakov, of suspicion of abuse and fraud. In particular, in January 2018 – November 2022, the company sold 11 cubic meters of granite at three times lower prices and nomenclature. As a result, the budget did not receive more than UAH 4.5 million in taxes. This money was laundered by purchasing machinery and special equipment for the company.
PJSC “Delta Service” in Kherson with an authorized capital of UAH 7,000,000.00. This is a transportation company, the ultimate beneficiaries of which are Lyubov Saldo, Leonid Girin and the Turkish company Aykut Ketensioglu. In 2019, the Kherson City Court seized corporate rights (shares), a set of property and non-property rights that make up 20% of the company’s shares. Over the past three years, the company has been involved in four criminal cases.
Volodymyr Saldo is a Ukrainian who was sanctioned by the National Security and Defense Council on October 19, 2022 for supporting Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine. The Security Service of Ukraine established that he, with the support of Russian armed forces and representatives of the aggressor state, took a number of measures to prepare and organize an illegal referendum.
In April 2022, in the seized Kherson City Council, the Russian occupiers appointed Saldo as the so-called “head” of the Kherson Regional State Administration. In the summer of 2022, he was included in the EU sanctions list because of his cooperation with Russia.
On March 15, 2022, he participated in a meeting of the so-called “Salvation Committee for Peace and Order” and held rallies in support of the occupiers. The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine announced the opening of proceedings on high treason related to the creation of a pseudo-government in Kherson region.
Saldo was elected mayor of Kherson three times – in 2002, 2006, and 2010. According to Slidstvo. info, during his tenure as mayor, Saldo’s family acquired two apartments and a large house in Kherson, and two apartments in Kyiv. The family also owns a three-bedroom apartment in the Nova Arkadiya residential complex in Odesa. His wife also bought a cottage in Crimea near Alushta and an apartment in the Yalta village of Voskhod.
It is worth mentioning that sanctions can only be imposed on citizens if they are involved in terrorist activities. But it is difficult to deny the significant level of integration of the economies of Ukraine and Russia before the full-scale invasion. Most of the collaborators and traitors continue to have a significant amount of assets in Ukraine and do business here.
Not all of them can be easily “reached” by Ukraine using other available legal instruments, including criminal ones. After all, a large number of such persons have multiple citizenships or reside outside Ukraine. The Saldo is one of them; the example shows the need to impose sanctions on citizens without any additional conditions.
Therefore, legislators should clarify the legal framework for imposing sanctions, in particular on citizens, by abolishing the requirement to establish signs of terrorist activity, at least during martial law and during the transition period after its expiration or cancellation. This will make it possible to bring to justice and limit the impact on the economy of all traitors and collaborators even before they are sentenced and put behind bars.
