Ukrainian Oligarch Kostyantyn Zhevago Detained In Courchevel

At the request of the State Bureau of Investigation, French law enforcement officers detained former deputy of parliament, shareholder of JSC "Bank "Finance and Credit" bank Konstantin Zhevago in the elite resort of Courchevel.

According to Forbes, he is Ukraine's youngest billionaire. In March 2012 Forbes placed him on the Forbes list of billionaires at the 719th place with $1.8 billion

French and Ukrainian law enforcement had been cooperating on the case for months before the oligarch's arrest. The former head of Ukraine's "Finances and Credit" group, Zhevago is accused of "organizing a mechanism for the embezzlement" of $113 million.

The Bureau's employees, in close cooperation with the Prosecutor General's Office, worked hard to implement the court's decision to detain the suspect.

Among other things, the SBI investigators have prepared a request to take him into custody pending the receipt of a demand for the extradition  of the former deputy of the People's Republic to 38 countries. For several months, there was a close interaction with law enforcement officers of various countries, including the judiciary, gendarmerie and police of the French Republic.

As a result, on the basis of the information received by the investigation, on December 27, in one of the hotels in Courchevel, representatives of the criminal police of the French Republic detained a shareholder of JSC Bank "Bank "Finance and Credit".

After trying to challenge the legality of the detention, the person involved agreed to leave together with the representatives of the competent authorities of France. Zhevago's extradition arrest is scheduled  at the Chambery court.  At this time, the necessary package of documents for his extradition from the French Republic to Ukraine is being prepared.

"Today, at the request of the SBI investigators, it was possible to detain Kostyantyn Zhevago in Courchevel. You know that he is involved in several criminal proceedings in the SBI, and now they are preparing documents for extradition," SBI communications advisor Tetyana Sapyan said on Wednesday on the air of Ukrainian telethon

Within the framework of the investigation of the criminal proceedings, Zhevago was informed of the suspicion of committing criminal offenses provided for in Part 3 of Art. 27, Part 5 of Art. 191, Part 3 of Art. 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, suspicions were also reported to a number of top managers of the bank. They organized a mechanism for embezzlement of 113 million US dollars of a financial institution, thereby harming the interests of the state and the bank's depositors.

As of today, the property of the suspected oligarch, as well as legal entities related to him, have been seized. In particular, shares of his enterprises worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias, corporate rights of companies, 26 real estate objects. Also, the property of other legal entities related to the former deputy was seized. Among other things, these are 14 property complexes, 21 parts of property complexes, 30 non-residential premises, 10 apartments.

Back in October 2020, seized assets worth more than 300 million hryvnias were transferred to the National Agency for Identification, Search and Asset Management (ARMA).