Baltic States – CIS, Crime, Estonia, Investments, Legislation, Ukraine

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said that on Dec. 10, more than 300 police officers and investigators from the Office of the Prosecutor General and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) conducted searches and detained alleged members of the criminal group that demanded a bribe of 50 mln euros from the Estonian investor.

Avakov said that the SBU arrested six members of the same criminal group in May, including the head of the village council, and charged them with attempted murder.

Khatia Dekanoidze, former head of national police, said at a press conference on Sept. 14 that the police imitated the murder of civic activist and lawyer Oleksandr Pogorilyi to detain the criminal group whose members intended to kill Pogorilyi.

According to news reports, Pogorilyi received murder threats after he publicly accused Zatoka officials of embezzlement and blackmailing of Estonian businessman Marcel Vichmann.

In September, police detained the ex-secretary of Zatoka village council, Vyacheslav Bokiy, who was accused of leading a criminal group engaged in land seizures and assassinations.

Avakov said that since the detention in May, law enforcement agencies continued the investigation to "expose not only the individual tentacles, but the whole criminal structure and its leaders."

According to Avakov, the criminal group included local officials, judges, police officers, local prosecutors and SBU officers.

The police opened 50 criminal proceedings to investigate acts such as attempted murder and blackmailing, setting fire to recreation centers to redivide their land plots and commit extortion.

Avakov also said that the police will investigate fraud schemes at the local elections which "allowed the members of criminal group to come to power."

He said that one of the schemes included registering several hundred people as residents of a single apartment before the elections so they could vote for specific candidates. Avakov said that on certain occasions around 700 people were registered in one apartment. He added that, by contrast, there were only 1,300 eligible voters in Zatoka.

Vichmann's company Litus Maris wishes to build a 12-kilometer seaside promenade in the area for an estimated 80-100 mln hryvnia, or 3.5- 4.3 mln euros, Aripaev has said.

The promenade to be built in the village of Zatoka on the northern coast of the Black Sea would be the longest in Ukraine and one of the longest in Europe. Vichmann owns a holiday center near the village and according to local media is interested in improving the appearance of the village.