Andrii Yosypovych Bohdan
Official biography
Lawyer, Head of the Presidential Office since spring 2019.Born on December 03, 1976 in Lviv.
Family
Andriy Bohdan is married. In the spring of 2019, Andriy Bohdan divorced his wife Olga Ihorivna Bohdan. He was dating Anastasia Slichna, the owner of a swimwear brand.
Children: Kateryna Andriyivna Bohdan, Sofia Andriyivna Bohdan, Viktoriia Andriyivna Bohdan, Anastasiia Andriyivna Bohdan.
Father: Yosyp Hnatovych Bohdan, PhD in Law, Associate Professor of the Department of Civil Law and Procedure at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.
Almost nothing is known about Andriy Bohdan’s mother. The parents divorced when Andriy was still at school. The head of the Presidential Office also has two younger brothers: Ihor Bohdan works as a court administrator at the Higher Economic Court in Kyiv, and the third brother lives in Lviv, but his name is not disclosed to the public.
Career
According to his father, Yosyp Bohdan, his son decided to go to Prague to work as a construction worker in his third year of university. With the money he earned, the future head of the Presidential Office bought his first car, a used VAZ Nine.
He began his career as a legal consultant at Fialka.
In 1998, Andriy Bohdan began working as a legal intern at the Lviv Railway.
In 2001, he received his lawyer’s license and, thanks to his father’s connections, moved to Kyiv, where he began his career at the Pravis law firm, which he owned:
— Ihor Pukshyn, later a former deputy head of the Secretariat of President Viktor Yushchenko, a member of the Legal Reform Commission under President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and managing partner of Pukshyn & Partners Law Firm;
— Oleksiy Reznikov, former Secretary of the Kyiv City Council, former Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA), member of the Ukrainian subgroup in the Trilateral Contact Group (Minsk Group); — Serhiy Vlasenko, former Member of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of the VI, VII, VIII and IX convocations (always elected from Yulia Tymoshenko’s party, now a member of the Batkivshchyna faction, No. 9 on the list).
Also in 2001, Andriy Bohdan became an assistant judge of the Kyiv Economic Court of Appeal.
According to the YouControl analytical system, in 2004, Bohdan was registered in Kyiv as an individual entrepreneur, specializing in legal services, consulting on commercial activities and management. The activity was terminated.
Since 2004, he has been a partner and managing partner of Pukshyn & Partners Law Firm.
In the 2007 elections to the Verkhovna Rada of the VI convocation, he was a candidate for the People’s Deputy from the Our Ukraine — People’s Self-Defense bloc, No. 93 on the list. At the time of the election: non-partisan, lawyer, managing partner of the Law Firm “Legal Advisers” (in 2009 the firm returned to its former name — “Pukshyn and Partners”).
In the Verkhovna Rada of the VI convocation (2007-2012), he worked as an assistant consultant to MP Andriy Portnov (Deputy Chairman of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, No. 58 on the list) on a voluntary basis.
In 2007, Andriy Bohdan became a lawyer for the former Prosecutor General, then Minister of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko, who was accused of distributing weapons as a reward. Lutsenko said that he maintained a relationship with Bohdan and that they used to meet outside of working hours.
From 2008 to 2010, he was deputy minister of justice under Mykola Onishchuk, in charge of anti-corruption.
By the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Mykola Azarov No. 453-r of March 17, 2010, Andriy Bohdan was appointed deputy minister of the Cabinet of Ministers to Anatoliy Tolstoukhov, the government commissioner for anti-corruption policy. He was dismissed by President Viktor Yanukovych’s decree No. 212/2011 of February 14, 2011, due to the abolition of his position.
Since February 2011, he has been an advisor to Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.
By the Cabinet of Ministers’ Resolution No. 500-r of July 11, 2013, Bohdan was appointed Government Agent for Anti-Corruption Policy. He was dismissed by the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Arseniy Yatsenyuk No. 119-p of March 5, 2014, at his own request.
In the 2014 elections to the Verkhovna Rada of the VIII convocation, he was a candidate for the parliamentary elections from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc (BPP) party, No. 74 on the list. At the time of the election: non-partisan, chief legal counsel of the law firm “Status” (EDRPOU: 33100308, co-owned by Bohdan’s brother Ihor).
Since March 21, 2014, he has been a freelance adviser to the head of the Dnipro Regional State Administration, Ihor Kolomoiskyi.
He was a lawyer in the case of the former leader of the UKROP party, Hennadiy Korban, after he was detained on October 31, 2015, on charges of hostage-taking, creation of a criminal organization and misappropriation of funds. In this regard, on March 25, 2016, he was removed from the electoral list at the BPP congress, which prevented him from taking the vacant seat in the Verkhovna Rada. The Kyiv District Administrative Court overturned the decision of the party congress only in October 2019.
During the 2019 presidential election, Andriy Bohdan was a legal advisor to Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
By President Zelenskyy’s Decree No. 304/2019 of May 21, 2019, Bohdan was appointed head of the Presidential Administration. He was dismissed by Decree No. 434/2019 of June 25, 2019. On the same day, by Presidential Decree No. 435/2019, Andriy Bohdan was appointed Head of the Presidential Office.
He was included in the National Security and Defense Council by Presidential Decree No. 340/2019 of May 31, 2019.
By Presidential Decree No. 46/2020 of February 11, 2020, Andriy Bohdan was dismissed from the position of Head of the Presidential Office.
Working for Volodymyr Zelenskyy
From the very beginning of the 2019 election campaign, Bohdan served as an adviser to then-presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He participated in all important negotiation processes and was a member of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s inauguration team. Therefore, in the eyes of the media, he was a likely candidate for the post of head of the Presidential Administration. And so it happened — on May 21, newly elected President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Andriy Bohdan as head of the Presidential Administration.
Some media outlets tried to accuse Bohdan of having visited Russian territory. But the lawyer himself denies this, as his name is on Russia’s blacklist and he simply would not have been allowed to enter. “I cannot enter Russia and Belarus even if I wanted to,” the lawyer says.
It is known that since 2014, Bohdan has spent a lot of time at the front, helping soldiers. He started working with volunteers back when he was working at the Regional State Administration. And apparently, he spent his own money on it.
Ihor Kolomoisky said that Andriy Bohdan was working on the case to reverse the nationalization of Privatbank. However, this information was reported in the media back in April, and it is likely that the lawyer has been working on more important cases since his appointment.
At the end of May, a petition for Andriy Bohdan’s resignation from the post of head of the Presidential Administration was registered on the website of the President of Ukraine. According to its author, Oleksandr Vasilevsky, Bohdan’s appointment was a violation of the law. Three days after its publication, the petition gained more than 25,000 signatures.
“We, the citizens of Ukraine, demand the immediate resignation of the head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, Andriy Bohdan, due to violations of the law on lustration,” the petition reads.
The fact is that after Bohdan’s appointment as head of the Presidential Administration, journalists noticed that he held high positions during Yanukovych’s time and thus falls under the lustration law.
In response, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, deputy head of the Presidential Administration, said that the law on lustration does not apply to positions in the Presidential Administration. Bohdan himself believes that he is “absolutely unfairly” subject to the lustration law. That is, Andriy Bohdan cannot be subject to the lustration law because he did not hold a position in the Presidential Administration at the time.
However, on February 11, 2020, Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Andriy Bohdan from the post of head of the Presidential Office. His place was taken by Andriy Yermak.
In addition, the head of the presidential administration said that Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s team was considering putting the issue of peace agreements with Russia to a national referendum.
Kolomoisky’s man
According to journalists, since the beginning of 2019, Andriy Bohdan has visited Tel Aviv, 15 km from Kolomoisky’s office, four times. In 2018, Bohdan regularly flew to Geneva, where Ihor Kolomoisky lived and worked at the time.
The Nashi Hroshi TV program stated that shortly before Volodymyr Zelenskyi announced his nomination as a presidential candidate, he flew to Israel for four days in the company of Bohdan and the 95th Quarter. However, in an interview with journalists from Ukrayinska Pravda and Novoe Vremia, Bohdan called it a coincidence and refuted the widespread belief that the newly elected president was dependent on the oligarch.
Bohdan and the EU Association
Ten days before the scheduled signing of the Association Agreement with the EU (November 19, 2013), Andriy Bohdan, as part of a Ukrainian delegation, along with Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, Deputy Prime Minister Yuriy Boyko and others, visited St. Petersburg. The official purpose of the visit was to hold talks with Dmitry Medvedev.
After returning to Kyiv on November 21, the Azarov government suspended the process of signing the Association Agreement. This was the impetus for the start of Euromaidan.
Assistant to Portnov
In 2007-2010, Bohdan combined his work in the government with the position of an assistant to the then Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc MP Andriy Portnov (at the same time, Bohdan was trying to get into the parliament on the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc’s list). It is worth noting that Portnov was able to return to Ukraine after Zelenskyy became president, and, according to media reports, cooperation between Bohdan and Portnov continues to this day.
Offshore scandal
According to journalists, Bohdan is allegedly connected to the offshore company Idelberg resources Inc. which has been involved in loan scams worth UAH 200 million, helping Svitlovodsk Oilseed Processing Plant not to repay a loan to the Finance and Credit Bank…
In 2009, when the bank applied for repayment of the loan, Idelberg Resources Inc. appeared out of nowhere, claiming that it also claimed the plant’s money in the total amount of $1.97 million, because it had allegedly lent it money. Following the trial, the plant acknowledged its debt to the offshore company, which was recognized by the court as fictitious in 2016. At the same time, the plant initiated its own bankruptcy, and its property was sold to the Cheese Club company, of which it was a member.
Andrii Bohdan allegedly had a power of attorney to represent Idelberg resources Inc. issued to him by his business partner Oleksandr Baulin. A third participant in the money withdrawal, Roman Babiy, registered with Pukshyn & Partners, later ranked 48th on the Servant of the People list.
Bohdan claimed that he did not remember if he had ever worked with Idelberg resources Inc.
Illegal state security
In November 2019, it became known that Andriy Bohdan used state license plates for cover and state security belonging to the head of state for free.
According to the media, Bohdan has no right to use state license plates and state security, as the position of the head of the Presidential Office is not a public office and does not even require a declaration. Later, after journalists asked for clarification on the license plates, Bohdan changed them.
Conflict with Yermak
In the summer of 2019, Andriy Yermak, who had previously served as an aide to the president, became one of the main negotiators in the implementation of Minsk-2 and began accompanying Zelenskyy on foreign trips.
There was mutual hostility and competition between the politicians, as well as confrontation in two main areas: for control over Kyiv (according to rumors, it was Yermak who dissuaded Zelenskyi from dismissing Klitschko from the post of head of the Kyiv City State Administration, while Bohdan wanted to fire Klitschko) and for influence on the president.
Behavior unbecoming of a politician
Andriy Bohdan’s behavior damaged the image of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi. The former head of the OP allowed himself to mock, parody, etc.
Also, according to media reports, at a closed meeting with journalists, Bohdan was emotional, swore, complained that no one loved him, and said he was disappointed in the Servant of the People faction, noting that there were “mentally ill people” there.
“Fight” with Bakanov
On November 2, 2019, it became known about Bohdan’s alleged fight with the head of the SBU, Ivan Bakanov. According to journalist Stanislav Rechinsky, the quarrel allegedly occurred because the parties involved did not agree on a candidate for the position of head of the SBU’s Main Investigation Department. Later, the fact of the fight was confirmed by the editor of the Left Bank newspaper, Sonya Koshkina. Further absurdizing the situation, Bohdan posted a photo of his allegedly broken teeth on his page.
Attempted lustration
In May 2019, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine demanded that Bohdan be dismissed from his position because he was included in the lustration register, as required by the Law on the Purification of Government. Under President Viktor Yanukovych, Bohdan twice held the position of Commissioner for Anti-Corruption Policy, a position that is included in the list of positions subject to lustration. However, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Ruslan Riaboshapka claimed that Bohdan was not subject to the law, as the administration is not a public authority.
According to media reports, Bohdan secretly visited the Constitutional Court, where he could talk to the court’s president about the repeal of the lustration law. In any case, Bohdan was not lustrated in the end.
Conflict with Klitschko
In the summer of 2019, Andrii Bohdan had an active public conflict with Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Bohdan said that during his tenure, Klitschko had failed to control the situation in Kyiv and wanted to initiate a change of the head of the Kyiv City State Administration and early mayoral elections. At the same time, a bill was drafted to separate the positions of the head of the Kyiv City State Administration and the mayor of Kyiv. On August 4, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to dismiss Vitali Klitschko from the post of head of the Kyiv City State Administration.
At the same time, Klitschko met with US President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudolph Giuliani and received his unconditional support. After that, there were rumors about Bohdan’s possible dismissal from the post of head of the OP.
Later, the National Police opened a criminal case based on Klitschko’s statement about the alleged arbitrariness of the head of the OP, Andriy Bohdan. Klitschko also filed a lawsuit against Bohdan for exceeding his authority. As a result, the topic went off the public agenda, and the OP refused to dismiss Klitschko.
11 friends of Bohdan
Bohdan, with the help of Zelenskyy, brought a number of his people to power: Oleksiy Honcharuk, Ruslan Riaboshapka, Andriy Gerus, Aivaras Abromavičius, Kyrylo Tymoshenko (there is currently information about his conflict with Yermak), Roman Boyko, Ihor Pukshyn, Yuriy Baulin, Andriy Smyrnov, Serhiy Kiz, and Andriy Vavrysh.
Income and property
According to a journalist investigation published in June 2019, Bohdan owns an elite house and a yacht purchased in 2011, after he started working in Azarov’s government, in the Kraevyd residential area, as well as a house in Koncha Zaspa.
In addition, his wife owns three apartments. The family also leases office space and owns large plots of land in Kyiv region, acquired during Bohdan’s tenure in the civil service.
According to “Khoroshaya Domashka”, Andriy Bohdan owns two apartments in an elite residential complex at 7-b Lesi Ukrainky Boulevard, located in a prestigious district of the capital.
Also in 2013, Andriy Bohdan’s wife Olga Ihorivna Bohdan received two apartments in the same building as a gift.
The cost per square meter of space in such a building varies between 40-60 thousand hryvnias.
In addition, in his declaration for 2013, Andrii Bohdan stated that he owns four land plots of 2915 square meters, 1669855 square meters, 2620 square meters and 560 square meters.
Other real estate, the area of which is 822 square meters, 1247 square meters and 1000 square meters. His family members have three land plots of 78206 sq.m., 807 sq.m. and 1000 sq.m.
In 2020, Bohdan filed his declaration not annually, but before his dismissal. That is why in the income section it covers only the period from January 1 to February 11, 2020.
The ex-head of the OP declared ownership of 10 land plots. Three of them are in the village of Kozyn near Kyiv, and 4 more are in the village of Zabuiannia, also in Kyiv region. Bohdan owns one land plot in the village of Hvozdiv in Kyiv region, one in Kyiv, and the last one in Lviv region. The largest of all the plots is located in the village of Zabuiannia, where Bohdan owns more than 15 hectares of land.
He also declared 6 apartments. One of them is located in Slovakia, all the others are in Kyiv, where Bohdan’s daughters have the right to use these apartments. The former head of the OP also declared a 560-square-meter house in Kozyn. In addition, Bohdan included 10 apartments in his declaration as construction in progress. He owns them on the basis of an investment agreement. This indicates that Bohdan has invested in the construction of Kyiv residential buildings, where he will receive full-fledged apartments after construction.
In the section of valuable movable property, the former head of the OP declared three luxury Swiss watches and five cars: Tesla Model X, Tesla S85, Mercedes-Benz GL500, Mercedes-Benz Vito 116 CDI, Mercedes-Benz GLS350. Bohdan purchased all of his cars after 2015, and three of them in 2019. It is worth noting that Tesla cars are not on sale in Ukraine in 2020.
In a little over a month of work in 2020, Bohdan received UAH 63 thousand in income from the State Administration of Affairs of Ukraine, and another UAH 20 thousand from renting property. The former head of the OP has many bank accounts, where he keeps more than 670 thousand dollars, 338 thousand euros and more than 10 million hryvnias. Bohdan also opened accounts for each of his four daughters in Slovakia, where they have between 35 and 49 thousand euros. He keeps 722 thousand dollars and 238 thousand euros in cash.
The total amount of Andriy Bohdan’s income, together with his savings, is just over two million US dollars. In 8 years, Andrii has acquired ten land plots and the number of apartments has increased. Can an honest politician and lawyer have his own yacht, ten plots of land and luxury apartments? I doubt it very much.
Bohdan’s final resignation
On the third attempt, Bohdan finally resigned. With the dismissal of Andriy Bohdan, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s team is likely to make personnel changes. After all, in addition to the usual clerical work, the now former head of the Presidential Office was one of the major players in domestic politics. He influenced appointments in the executive branch, gave (as records in the office of former SBI head Roman Truba show) informal orders to heads of law enforcement agencies. Therefore, it is possible that Bohdan will be followed by the heads of a number of central government agencies and the Presidential Office who are associated with him.
In general, Bohdan’s resignation ended Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “honeymoon” period in politics, his emergence as president of Ukraine. Gradually, those who brought Zelenskyy to power are leaving his entourage. The first was Oleksandr Danyliuk, who resigned as Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. Now it’s Andriy Bohdan. The new stage of Zelenskyy’s presidency requires new personnel decisions, which, apparently, will now be made by Andriy Yermak.
Bohdan and the goat
In May 2020, a video appeared online showing Bohdan pulling a white goat by the ear in a petting zoo and hitting it several times on the forehead, saying: “You stupid goat!”.
Criminal proceedings were opened for cruelty to animals.
Summary
Andriy Yosypovych Bohdan is an influential man, but his influence goes hand in hand with greed. Offshore business, lining his pockets with huge sums of money — this is about him. As a result, he has 10 plots of land, two Tesla cars, the price of one of which is the same as two good apartments, and a yacht. And while he has everything, you and I have nothing.