The High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine (HACC) has received an indictment paired with a plea bargain for 29-year-old Ihor Korol, a key figure in a high-profile corruption scheme involving former state officials. Korol, a Ukrainian citizen born in Budapest, faces charges of large-scale embezzlement and money laundering under Part 5 of Article 191 and Part 2 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Investigative records indicate he acted as a proxy («strawman») in a 2020 operation where top-ranking ARMA officials and accomplice lawyers misappropriated $400,000 in seized assets.
According to investigators, the stolen cash was originally seized in May 2020 from a safety deposit box belonging to Serhiy Kisiliov, the brother of a 9th-generation Ukrainian MP. The funds were linked to a murder investigation involving criminal boss Oleksandr Semenov («Katsap») and were widely alleged to be the «thieves’ slush fund» (obshchak) of crime lord Andriy Nedzelsky («Nedelya»).
In December 2020, leadership at the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA), in close cooperation with a network of defense lawyers, transferred the cash directly into Ihor Korol’s personal bank account using a forged court order.
Context: In the spring of 2023, following a civil lawsuit filed by ARMA, a court ordered Ihor Korol to pay back the equivalent value of the stolen assets, totaling 14.5 million UAH.
In 2021, law enforcement formally indicted six primary participants in the asset-stripping scheme. The list included ARMA’s highest-ranking leadership at the time:
Vitaliy Syhydyn, Acting Head of ARMA;
Volodymyr Pavlenko, Deputy Head of ARMA;
Vakhtang Bochorishvili, Head of the Asset Management Department.
The broader conspiracy involved a ring of proxies (Ihor Korol, Artem Tsybulsky, and Vasyl Myhai) and several defense attorneys, notably Oksana Serokurova (Zhdanova) and Denys Serdiuk. More recently, on April 28, a formal notice of suspicion was served to 44-year-old Transcarpathia native Vasyl Myhai for his alleged involvement in the illicit cash diversion.
As of today, only two defense attorneys—Oksana Zhdanova and Denys Serdiuk—are actively standing trial. The criminal proceedings against the former ARMA executives (Syhydyn, Pavlenko, and Bochorishvili) have been officially paused by the court due to their mobilization into the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Concurrently, legal battles over ownership of the seized capital persist. The original holder of the funds, Serhiy Kisiliov, sought state compensation for the lost money. While the Pechersk District Court ruled in his favor in late December 2023, the Supreme Court of Ukraine subsequently overturned the decision, leaving the financial liability with the convicted proxy.