https://reportingproject.net/occrp/index.php/ccwatch/cc-watch-indepth/182-oc-prosecutions-rarely-successful-in-ukraine
OCCRP
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
21Nov2008
OC Prosecutions Rarely Successful in Ukraine
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The Action in Crimea
Crimea is the only region that continuously tracks organized crime and reports on its results. In March 2008, police arrested Ruvim Aronov, a member of the Crimean Parliament, former commercial director of the local soccer club, Tavria, and one of the leaders of the Crimean organized group Bashmaki (The Shoes), according to police reports. The group committed about 50 murders and 8 kidnappings. Aronov himself is charged with organizing a murder, having dual (Ukrainian-Israeli) citizenship, which is illegal in Ukraine, and killing an elderly woman while he was driving a car.
In March, the daily Kommersant reported that despite having a warrant for his arrest since August 2006, Aronov was seen in February 2007 television footage in Israel watching a soccer game with Akhmetov, Hryhoriy Surkis, president of Ukraines soccer federation and former Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun. Currently Aronov remains in custody in Ukraine.
Another case, beginning with the September 2006 arrest in Crimea of Oleksandr Melnyk, called by the police one of the leaders of the Salem organized crime group, reportedly named after Salem Massachusetts, a sister town to the Crimean main city Simferopol, went nowhere. Oleksandr, who is suspected of organizing the killings of two people, was released by Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin due to a lack of evidence. Melnyk immediately left the country for Russia. Kuzmin explained that Melnyk was accused by the police of organizing murders more than 10 years ago with only indirect evidence against him. The alleged murders took place in the mid-nineties.
Oleksandr Melnyk, aka Melya, born in 1971, is mentioned in the 1999 Overview as one of Salems leaders. He is listed as being under a search warrant. Salem is classified in the report as the most powerful OCG in Crimea.
Its main activities, according to the Overview, were penetration in government and power structures, bribing officials and law enforcement, which benefited them a lot during privatization, as they were able to win the economic war legitimately, without shedding too much blood.
There was not enough evidence for the deputy prosecutor general, however. Possibly, he is a criminal. Possibly he organized 52 murders. But if someone wants him to face the court, (this desire alone) doesnt create evidence. Once you have the evidence, I promise you, he will be in jail, Kuzmin said in a November 2006 interview with Kommersant.
Today, Melnyk, who returned to Ukraine late in 2006, is a member of the Crimean Parliament, where he serves on a committee for economic, budget and fiscal policies. He called any accusations against him the rubbish of a clinical idiot. Kuzmin, who at the time signed his release, still holds his post.
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Akhmetovs Closet
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The most controversial parts of the series dealt with Akhmetovs alleged participation in torturing and killing an underground businessman in 1986. There the article uses at is source the book Donetsk Mafia, which quoted an opposition newspaper publication. According to Medvedev, this was one of the major reasons for Akhmetovs libel suit.
Serhiy Kuzin, an author of Donetsk Mafia, published in 2006, claims in his book that until 2004 the police in Donetsk kept a file on Akhmetov, which has disappeared. The head of the local police, Volodymyr Malyshev, who resigned in 2004, was appointed the next year as head of the System Capital Management holdings security service, the majority of which is controlled by Akhmetov. According to Kuzin, the file was either destroyed or is held by Akhmetov. Malyshev is now a member of Parliament on the committee controlling law enforcement in Ukraine.
https://reportingproject.net/occrp/REPORTS/Document%20about%20Donetsk%20crime%20group.pdf
DOCUMENT ABOUT DONETSK CRIME GROUP
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