Kucher Oleksiy Volodymyrovych (Devil’s Advocate)
Official biography
Oleksiy Volodymyrovych Kucher is a Ukrainian lawyer, politician, and candidate for mayor of Kharkiv in 2020. Until November 2019, he was a member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the 9th convocation. Since November 5, 2019, he has been the head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration.
Family.
Wife — Victoria Oleksandrivna Kucher
Daughters — Amelia and Stefania.
Education.
In 2006, Kucher graduated from H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University. She majored in physical education at a primary school.
In 2010, he graduated from the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law Academy of Ukraine. He received a law degree.
He received his lawyer’s license in 2011. Lecturer at the Higher School of Advocacy. For 5 years he worked in the prosecutor’s office and court. He specialized in criminal cases and was an assistant judge of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court in Kharkiv.
He was a lawyer for Volodymyr Lytvyn, who was suspected in the “backpack case”. He defended judge Serhii Laziuk of the Dzerzhynskyi District Court.
Until August 2019, he was the owner of Dartley Group Law Firm LLC.
Politics.
In the 2019 elections, he ran for the seat of the people’s deputy from the “Servant of the People” party (constituency 179, Lozova, Zachepyliv, Kegychiv, Krasnohrad, Lozova, Sakhnovshchyna districts). He received 50.61% of the vote. After being elected to the Parliament of the 9th convocation, he became a member of the Committee on Legal Policy, heading the subcommittee on the organization and activities of the Bar and legal aid bodies. He headed the Slobozhanshchyna inter-factional deputy association.
On November 5, 2019, he took office as the head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration. On December 3 of the same year, the Verkhovna Rada voted to deprive Kucher of his parliamentary mandate at his request.
Dirt and rumors
According to the Antikor portal, Oleksiy Kucher established himself as a lawyer after 2014: “the reason is that Kucher is engaged in unpopular but extremely profitable cases in financial terms — he defends bribe-takers in Ukrainian courts.”
According to media reports, Kucher drew attention after a high-profile story involving Anton Savvov. In the summer of 2017, the 62-year-old businessman found himself at the center of an international scandal: he was accused of selling “fake” awards and certificates, which he issued allegedly on behalf of Oxford University and related entities.
“By selling titles and certificates for tens of thousands of dollars, the Ukrainian became a millionaire and put his business on the map until the British newspaper Times exposed it. However, instead of admitting his guilt, Savvov decided to defend his business reputation in court, and his lawyer was Oleksiy Kucher,” Antikor writes.
According to the sources, Kucher’s clients are most often MPs, judges, investigators and law enforcement officers caught red-handed. In particular, Kucher is defending in court a deputy of the Kharkiv City Council Roman Salnikov (accused of taking a bribe of UAH 20 thousand), an investigator of the Shevchenkivskyi District Department Mykhailo Sahaidak (accused of taking a bribe of UAH 1 thousand), a judge of the Dzerzhynskyi District Court Serhii Laziuk.), judge of Dzerzhynsky District Court Serhiy Lazyuk (accused of receiving a bribe of $300 and suspected of receiving another $3000), judge of Sloviansk City Court Ihor Minaev and others. In addition, as noted in the article, he defended Kharkiv City Council deputy Borys Baronin, whom the prosecutor’s office suspects of participating in a «cooperative scheme» — illegal seizure of land plots. In this case, in addition to Baronin, the odious former head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration Mykhailo Dobkin was also among the suspects.
“To summarize, there is no need to talk about the integrity of this lawyer. It is obvious that he does his work not at the call of his heart, but rather at the call of his wallet. This is confirmed by his lifestyle: the lawyer drives a Volkswagen Passat and Audi Q5 of the highest specification,” Antikor noted.
Radio Liberty journalists connect Kucher with Vadym Slyusarev, a former border guard whose rapid career growth occurred during the time of President Viktor Yanukovych. He was also an assistant to MP Artem Pshonka, the son of the former Prosecutor General.
ZN.ua reported that in the 179th constituency, where Oleksiy Kucher won the election, the interests of the Servant of the People party were represented by Vadym Belichenko, an engineer at Tiera LLC, a company owned by Slyusarev. The company specializes in leasing and property management.
An informed source in the state law enforcement system told Depo.Kharkiv that the State Bureau of Investigation has opened a criminal case against the head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration Oleksiy Kucher:
“The information was entered into the URPTI under Part 1 of Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (official forgery, i.e., entering knowingly false information in official documents by an official, other forgery of documents, as well as drawing up and issuing knowingly false documents). The proceedings concern the fact that Kucher’s order “On commencement of work” as the head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration was signed by him and published twice in a row on different dates, but under the same number.”
The Kharkiv-based Newsroom has discovered that Oleksiy Kucher lives in an apartment owned by a supporter of the so-called “Malorossiya”. This is evidenced by data posted on the NACP website.
According to the document, the official or his relatives own three apartments. In addition, the family uses a 95-square-meter house free of charge. According to the official registry, the property in question is located in the elite house No. 16 on Lyapunova Street (the price of apartments in this building on the secondary market varies from $115 to 250 thousand).
“The owner of the property is a certain Kirill Shalimov. According to information from open sources, a person with this name does not have and has never had a business. However, he is mentioned on the Myrotvorets website as a separatist and a fan of pseudo-republics. The profile contains screenshots in which the 21-year-old native of occupied Stakhanov says that he is “happy in Malorossia,” the media outlet writes.
Kucher sold the real estate for almost a million hryvnias to a specialist in the sale of oil products.
It is known that the deal took place on May 15.
The head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, Oleksiy Kucher, declared 867.1 thousand hryvnias of income. This became known from the declaration on significant changes in property status, which he submitted to the NAPC.
The governor received the income from the alienation of real estate. The real estate sale took place on May 15. The property was bought by a citizen of Ukraine, Akhmet Vadymovych Zakirov.
It is not specified what kind of real estate Alexey Kucher sold.
It is known from open sources that Akhmet Zakirov is a contact person at Alliance Oil Ukraine LLC, which imports and trades gasoline and diesel fuel from Belarus, Lithuania and Poland, and Naftasoft LLC.
Oleksiy Kucher has not yet filed his income tax return for the previous year, 2019.
Declaration
According to the new head of the Kharkiv region, neither Oleksiy Kucher nor his wife Victoria earned a single penny in 2018. At least, not officially. The relevant declaration is published on the website of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC).
At the end of May 2020, Oleksiy Kucher disclosed his income for the past twelve months, as well as movable and immovable property.
According to the published declaration, the Kucher family owns
— an apartment in Kharkiv with a total area of 62.9 square meters and a value of UAH 429,200;
— an apartment in Kharkiv with an area of 68.6 square meters and a value of UAH 612,000;
— an apartment in Kharkiv with an area of 61.9 square meters and a value of UAH 653,300;
— two land plots (103 square meters and 1000 square meters) and a residential building (62 square meters) in the city of Liubotyn, Kharkiv region;
— a land plot (62,500 square meters) in Novoraysk village, Beryslav district, Kherson region.
In addition, the NACP website states that the family uses housing with a total area of 95 square meters free of charge. According to the official registry, it is an apartment in an elite building No. 16 on Lyapunova Street in Kharkiv (the price of apartments in this building on the secondary market varies from $115,000 to $250,000).
The Kharkiv-based Newsroom found that the apartment where the Kucher family lives belongs to a supporter of the so-called “Malorossia” — Kirill Andreevich Shalimov. According to information from open sources, a person with this name has never had a business. Instead, he is mentioned on the Myrotvorets website as a separatist and a fan of pseudo-republics,” the media outlet writes.
The Kucher family owns a Rolex watch (2 copies).
Oleksiy Kucher owns 11 shares of Mykolaivcement and 10% of Dartley Group Law Firm LLC.
The lifestyle of the governor of Kharkiv region confirms the assumption that he is unscrupulous. The lawyer drives foreign cars of the highest specification. His family has several cars:
— a car Lexus NX 200T made in 2017;
— Audi Q5 passenger car made in 2011;
— a car Volkswagen Passat made in 2011;
— GAZ-SAZ 3507 truck made in 1987.
— As for his monetary assets, Oleksiy Kucher declared 77 bitcoins worth UAH 13,102,033 million, as well as savings worth $84 thousand. Kucher’s wife, Victoria, disclosed monetary assets worth $200,000 and 49,000 hryvnias.
— The head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration disclosed his family income for the past year in the amount of UAH 205,888.
Summary
Oleksii Kucher was nicknamed the “Devil’s Advocate” for a reason, as his legal work is guided by the call of his wallet rather than the call of his heart. He defends all criminals in court for the sake of an extra penny. Also, his omissions in the declaration once again prove that Kucher is an unscrupulous person who makes his money illegally.