Natalia Ivanovna Gunko
Official biography
Born on February 15, 1979 in Brovary, Kyiv region.
Family
Natalia Gunko is married. Her husband’s name is Anatoliy (born in 1976). He is also a lawyer and is a director of Guild of Law LLC. Anatoliy has a stake in Inter-Profit (46%, organization of building construction) and Fintekhinvest (10%, wholesale of building materials). He is also an entrepreneur.
In 2015, he unsuccessfully ran for the Kyiv Regional Council from the Nash Krai party, and in 2019, for the Verkhovna Rada from the Batkivshchyna party.
The Hunko family has two children: daughter Kateryna and son Kostiantyn.
Education
In 2012, Natalia Gunko received a law degree from the National Academy of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
Career and business
Natalia Gunko worked as a secretary at the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv for two years (2003-2005). Since 2008, she has been working as a legal advisor at Guild of Law LLC. According to her declaration, Natalia is the owner of this company.
In addition, Gunko owns the company Granit Trade (production of bricks, tiles and other building products from fired clay) and half of the rights to the transport company Expert Cruise (retail trade in parts for motor vehicles).
In 2015, Natalia won the election in the fifteenth electoral district (Kalynivka, Pukhivka, Dmytriv, Trebukhiv, Kniazhychi and other neighboring villages) from the Radical Party and was elected to the Kyiv Regional Council.
In the regional council, Gunko is the secretary of the commission on ecology, water resources, nature management, liquidation of the consequences of the Chornobyl accident and other emergencies.
In the 2020 local elections, she ran as No. 3 on the list of the Servant of the People party after the then leader of the regional branch of the SN party, MP of the IX convocation Oleksandr Dubinskyi (until February 2, 2021, a member of the Servant of the People party faction, then unaffiliated; constituency No. 94 in Kyiv region — Obukhiv and Vasylkiv) and after Oleksandr Skliarov, who was later elected chairman of the COS of the VIII convocation.
In the 4th territorial electoral district of Brovary district, she ran under #2. She was elected in a single-member constituency.
Since November 20, 2020, she has been a deputy of the Kyiv Regional Council of the VIII convocation. She is a member of the 22-member Servant of the People faction, headed by authorized representative Denys Sichovyi.
On November 25, 2020, together with Halyna Yerko (European Solidarity) and Iryna Shvets (OPFL), she became a member of the Secretariat of the session of the Regional Council of the VIII convocation.
On November 30, 2020, she became a member of the Standing Committee on Capital Construction, Architecture, Transport, Communications, Fuel and Energy Supply and Development of Infrastructure Facilities.
On April 27, 2021, at an extraordinary meeting, members of the Kyiv Regional Council accepted the resignation of the council’s chairman, Oleksandr Skliarov, as well as his first deputy, Maryna Sapozhko, and deputy Valerii Ksendzenko. This decision was voted for by 59 out of 60 deputies present (one ballot was spoiled).
At the same meeting, Natalia Gunko was elected chairman of the Kyiv regional council by 58 votes, as KV had predicted, and Yaroslav Dobriansky (For the Future) was elected first deputy chairman. Tetyana Semenova (European Solidarity) was elected deputy chairman.
Compromising material
According to media reports, Natalia Hunko’s husband is involved in a “scandalous carve-up” in Brovary. At the end of 2013, the local authorities carved up the land that once belonged to the state-owned enterprise Radio Transmission Center.
Initially, these lands (96 hectares) were leased to 48 people for “private farming”. But within a few days, all the owners simultaneously resold them to three people, including Anatoliy Gunko. According to journalistic investigations, he ended up owning 44 hectares of land.”
Further, “at the session, the community was informed that a German pharmaceutical company was planning to build a plant on this site. However, the Germans “at the request of the media and activists later denied this version”. In total, the value of these lands, according to journalists, is equal to “the annual budget of the city.”
At the session of the Kyiv City Council, the project, which was supposed to build a pharmaceutical plant, was presented by employees of the Tehenergotrade company. Its owner is a well-known businessman Volodymyr Polishchuk, who is married to the niece of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The Polischuks’ business includes the Eldorado chain, Technopolis, Gulliver shopping center, and Mikhailovsky Bank.
Other sources link the Inter-Profit company, co-founded by Anatoliy Gunko, to this scheme. The scandal is called the “land scam of the year”.
According to media reports, Natalia’s husband was a suspect “in criminal proceedings over the destruction of the state-owned Radio Transmission Center in Brovary and the misappropriation of land.” The prosecution demanded “a preventive measure for Gunko in the form of detention, arguing that he had ‘corrupt ties with law enforcement agencies’.”
The Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko assured that the defendants in the criminal proceedings “damaged the country’s defense capabilities during the Russian aggression” because he and other suspects “illegally destroyed the working equipment” on the territory of the State Enterprise “Radio Transmission Center”, which covered 95% of the territory of Ukraine, including the occupied territories. However, in 2019, due to a lack of evidence, Anatoliy Hunko was not charged with a crime.
Instead, in the same year, he became a candidate for parliament from the Batkivshchyna party. And according to the press, “he used the cars of the Kyiv City Council for his own campaigning.” The journalists suggested that Anatoliy “could have engaged the official transport of the regional council, using the official position of his wife”.
According to media reports, in 2015, Natalia Gunko tried to run for the regional council “as a candidate of the BPP, but local representatives of this party ruled out this option.
Therefore, Natalia ran as a representative of the Radical Party. In the regional council, she was appointed to the environmental commission. According to the media, “given her family’s business affairs, Gunko may have a conflict of interest while working in the environmental commission of the regional council.”
Despite the restrictions, the Servants of the People gathered in a hotel and restaurant complex during the lockdown
During the lockdown, Servant of the People MPs Andriy Motovylovets, Anatoliy Gunko, Artem Kultenko and their fellow party members from the Kyiv Regional Council held a meeting for many hours at the Koncha Zaspa Park country hotel and restaurant complex. The co-owner of the restaurant in this establishment is Serhiy Levchenko, a deputy of the Kyiv Regional Council from the SN party, who also attended the meeting. This happened during the time when the authorities imposed bans on mass gatherings, bans on conference rooms in hotels and on serving unauthorized visitors. This is stated in an investigation by the Schemes program (a project of Radio Liberty and UA:Pershyi). Some participants of the meeting explained the gathering in the complex by the “paralyzed work of the regional council” and the inability to find “another coworking space.”
“The “schemers” also noticed a BMW there, the license plate of which is registered to Natalia Gunko, a member of the Servant of the People party from the Kyiv Regional Council.
Kyiv “radicals” are financed by Medvedchuk
Kyiv regional security forces have launched a pre-trial investigation into the criminal laundering of funds that have been regularly received from Russia over the past 1.5 years. The criminal proceedings state that funds were regularly transferred from the aggressor country, which were subsequently deposited in the accounts of Ukrainian NGOs, committees and even representatives of political parties. According to the investigation, this money was used for the activities necessary for Russia to wage a hybrid war.
It is noteworthy, but not surprising, that these funds were transferred from Russia to the accounts of companies affiliated with Viktor Medvedchuk, who is also the godfather of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The money was then distributed to the accounts of other private companies. One of the recipients of these funds was Natalia Gunko, a member of the Kyiv City Council from the Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko.
Declaration
According to her income declaration for 2019, Natalia owns a 220-square-meter house in Brovary district, a 68-square-meter apartment in Brovary, three land plots in the village of Zazymia, three land plots in the village of Hoholiv, and a 585-square-meter garden house.
Anatoliy Hunko declares a 105-square-meter apartment in Brovary, eight land plots in the village of Salne, and a land plot in the village of Rasavka.
The Hunko family also registers a collection of jewelry and wristwatches of elite brands, including Breitling, Rolex, Longines, and Damiani. Interestingly, the value of the property is not indicated in the declaration. Apparently, in order not to shock voters.
The family members use several cars: a 2009 Mercedes-Benz ML350, a 2012 Skoda Octavia A5, a 2018 BMW 730LD (worth 4.6 million), a 2014 Land Rover Range Rover, a 2017 BMW X5 (worth 1.5 million), and a 2008 ACURA MDX.
According to the document, the politician earned 215 thousand hryvnias during the year. Her husband declares an income of 5.3 million hryvnias.
Natalia Ivanovna has no savings or bank deposits. And her husband Anatoliy concealed information about his monetary assets.
Two cars and her husband’s apartment were missing from the MP’s declaration
On May 15, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv lifted the seizure of Anatoliy Hunko’s property in the case of embezzlement of 94.67 hectares of state land of the State Enterprise “Radio Transmission Center” in Brovary, which was closed by the Prosecutor General’s Office a year ago. At the same time, part of this property is not listed in the annual declaration of his wife, who is a member of the Kyiv Regional Council. This is evidenced by the ruling of May 15 and data from the Unified State Register of Declarations.
Thus, on May 15, the court lifted the seizure of Anatoliy Hunko’s property, namely: four plots, part of a residential building, two apartments of 105.5 square meters and 105.19 square meters, as well as four cars (Skoda Octavia A5, two Land Rovers and Toyota Prado 2.7 2700). The property was seized by the court on April 5, 2018.
Meanwhile, on May 21, Natalia Gunko, a deputy of the Kyiv Regional Council, filed her annual declaration for 2019, which does not contain information about some of her husband Anatoliy Gunko’s property, as indicated in the court order, namely, an apartment of 105.19 square meters and Land Rover and Toyota Prado cars.
Summary
Natalia Gunko is a defector from one party to another. Apparently, she doesn’t care what political ideas she supports, the main thing is to stay in power. In the past, together with her husband, thanks to their connections and knowledge, they were very successful in land deals. Also, one cannot help but notice her incredible collection of jewelry and fur coats. It’s scary to think what other financial frauds are going on through Natalia Gunko, which, unfortunately, the media knows nothing about…