Serhiy Leshchenko (, 30 August, 1980) is a Ukrainian ex-journalist, politician and public figure, Member of Parliament ( 8th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada). From 2002 until 2014, Leshchenko worked as a Deputy Editor-in-Chief and as a special correspondent for ''

Ukrainska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' is a Ukrainian socio-political online media outlet founded by Heorhii Gongadze in April 2000. After Gongadze’s death in September 2000, the editorial team was led by co-founder Olena Prytula, who remained the editor-in ...

online newspaper An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the electronic publishing, online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical literature, periodical. Goin ...

Biography

In 2003, Leschenko graduated the Institute of Journalism at the

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (; also known as Kyiv University, Shevchenko University, or KNU) is a public university in Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is the third-oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and ...

. His career in journalism began in 2000 after the probation at the news program ''Reporter'' on the '' Novyi Kanal'' channel chaired by

Andriy Shevchenko Andriy Mykolayovych Shevchenko (, ; born 29 September 1976) is a Ukrainian former Manager (association football), football manager and Football player, player. Shevchenko is considered one of the greatest Striker (association football), strik ...

. In September 2000, he became a correspondent of the online version of the newspaper ''

''. He continued working at the regional news department of "''Novyi Kanal''" until Spring 2001 while working for ''Ukrainska Pravda''. In March 2001 he quit working for ''Novyi Kanal''. In 2002 he became deputy editor-in-chief of the ''Ukrainska Pravda''. Leschenko is famous for his

investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, racial injustice, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend m ...

on corruption in Ukrainian politics. In 2010 he joined the movement "Stop Tsenzuri!" ("Stop Censorship!") aimed for the protection of free speech, prevention of censorship and obstruction of journalism in Ukraine. In 2012, Leschenko joined a civil movement "Chesno" aiming for transparency and accountability of government officials. In 2012 he studied in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

as a part of a scholarship program of John Smith Fellowship. In 2013–2014 he undertook an internship at the

National Endowment for Democracy The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization in the United States founded in 1983 with the stated aim of advancing democracy worldwide and counter communism, communist influence abroad, by prom ...

in Washington D.C. through the

Reagan–Fascell Democracy Fellowship The Reagan–Fascell Democracy Fellowship Program is a resident program of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). It is named for the 40th U.S President Ronald Reagan and the late U.S. congressman Dante Fascell. Around 16 to 20 scholars are ...

. In 2013 he took part in the Draper Hills Summer Fellowship at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in the United States. In 2014, Leschenko was elected a people's deputy to the 8th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada with the party Petro Poroshenko Bloc "Solidarity". He chaired a subcommittee on International Partnership and Anticorruption Law Implementation as part of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Corruption Prevention and Counteraction. From 2015 to 2016, Leschenko was lecturing journalism at the

Ukrainian Catholic University The Ukrainian Catholic University () is a Catholicism, Catholic university in Lviv, Ukraine, affiliated with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) was the first :Catholic universities and colleges, Catholic ...

(Lviv) and delivering a course of lectures on anticorruption at National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In June 2013, Leschenko published a documentary book the "American saga of Pavlo Lazarenko" based on the US law enforcement agencies' investigation materials. After the

Euromaidan Euromaidan ( ; , , ), or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of Political demonstration, demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv. The p ...

Leschenko wrote another book the "Mezhyhirya Syndrome. Diagnoses of

Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych (born 9 July 1950) is a Ukrainian politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014. He also served as the prime minister of Ukraine several times between 2002 and 2007 and was a member of t ...

Ruling", which was published in September 2014. Since 2017, Leschenko has his video blogs live on channel "24", where he talks about the current political situation in Ukraine, opens up his political activity and presents the agenda of the modern reformists.Occupation of the TV: Why do politicians become TV presenter

(12 February 2019) Since September 2018, on the same "24", Leschenko presents the political talk show "What was this" with journalist Yevgeniya Motorevska.

Parliamentary activities

On 27 November 2014, Serhiy Leschenko became a people's deputy of the 8th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada. He was elected as a member of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc (No 19). In the Ukrainian parliament, he became a member of the Committee on preventing and combating corruption. Leschenko became a member of the Interfactional union " Eurooptimists". In 2015, Leschenko became a co-author of the bill "The changes to be made to certain legislation acts of Ukraine about preventing and counteracting corruption". The bill foresees a decrease in the risks of political corruption due to complex changes to Ukrainian legislation in the sphere of political parties and pre-election agitation direct financing that increases parties' financial dependency. The bill was a part of the "visa free package" laws, necessary for the liberalization of visa free regime for Ukraine. On 26 November 2015, Leschenko presented the documents that he believed had justified the criminal case in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

on bribery and money laundering. The case was begun against then people's deputy from the " People's Front" party Mykola Martynenko. Due to the data provided, Mykola Martynenko was placed under investigation. In fall 2017, together with other people's deputies and civil society representatives, Leschenko held an agitation campaign in support of "Vseukrayinskyi zbir" initiative, which had its focus on "a large political reform". The main points of the reform were a creation of an anticorruption court, abolition of deputies' immunity, a switch to a proportional representation election system with open lists. Serhiy advocates for putting a limit on pre-electoral agitation campaigns on television, which will increase the candidates' ability to compete. In 2017, Leschenko publicly revealed that Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko had not been receiving members of the public as was required by legislation. This caused the Prosecutor General to start receiving members of the public. After election to the Verkhovna Rada, Leschenko gradually began to criticize the Petro Poroshenko Bloc (PPB) more and more and stopped voting in sync with it. According to deputy head of the PPB faction Oleksiy Honcharenko, by February 2019 Leschenko had not attended PPB faction meetings for several years.Leshchenko, Naim and Zalishchuk leave the BPP. Why now and what's next?
BBC Ukrainian (28 February 2019)
Three MPs intend to leave BPP parliamentary faction

Ukrinform The National News Agency of Ukraine (), or Ukrinform (), is a state information and news agency, and international broadcaster of Ukraine. It was founded in 1918 during the Ukrainian War of Independence In April 2019 Leschenko advised the newly elected Ukrainian President

Volodymyr Zelensky Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukraini ...

's transition team. But he has since been distanced by the administration and Zelensky himself. On 29 May 2019 Leschenko stated he wanted to take part in the July

2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 21 July 2019. Originally scheduled to be held at the end of October, the elections were brought forward after newly inaugurated President of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dissolved parli ...

for the party

Servant of the People Servant of the People (; ''SN'') is a Liberalism, liberal, Centrism, centrist, Pro-Europeanism, pro-European List of political parties in Ukraine, political party in Ukraine. Since both the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election and the 2019 Ukra ...

but this party stated on 7 June 2019 that no incumbent MPs would be on its party list for the 2019 parliamentary election. Instead Leschenko tried to win back his seat in the 220th electoral district in Kyiv. But Leschenko failed to do this, taking third place with 11.98% (7,775 votes). Instead, Servant of the People candidate Hanna Bondar won the district with 37%.

The real estate scandal

On 6 September 2016, a group of deputies of the Verkhovna Rada appealed to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) with a request to check the purchase of Serhiy Leschenko of an apartment of 192 m² in a new building on Ivan Franko Street in the center of Kyiv. At that time, the cost of the apartment was UAH 12.864 million (

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

480 thousand). Other sources say that the apartment is worth UAH 7.5 million. According to Leshchenko, half of the amount was borrowed from the chief editor of the ''

Olena Prytula Olena Yuriivna Prytula (; ; born March 10, 1967) is a Ukrainian journalist, the former editor-in-chief, owner (and earlier co-founder) of the ''Ukrainska Pravda'', an influential online newspaper that focuses on news and political coverage in Uk ...

, in the form of an

interest In finance and economics, interest is payment from a debtor or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is distinct f ...

-free cash loan for 10 years, the rest was personal funds of Leschenko and his girlfriend, famous Ukrainian DJ Anastasiya Topolska. This apartment purchase has caused a great public outcry. Criticism has undergone both the fact of luxury purchasing, as well as sources of financing. The seller of this apartment was the Asset Management Company Industrial Investments LLC, which is indirectly related to the oligarch Dmytro Firtash. In 2011, this legal entity initiated the

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

of the state chemical plant Sumykhimprom. Subsequently, thanks to the bankruptcy process, the oligarch Dmytro Firtash gained control over the chemical enterprise. On 19 September 2016, NABU reported an administrative violation with signs of corruption in the Leschenko case: Pritula's loan could be qualified as a

gift A gift or present is an item given to someone (who is not already the owner) without the expectation of payment or anything in return. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is intended to be free. In many cou ...

, and its receipt contradicts the Ukrainian anti-corruption legislation (restriction on the receipt of gifts by deputies). In addition, USD 77 thousand were spent from the deposits of Serhiy Leschenko's mother, which wasn't stated in the deputy's declaration as his own funds. On 15 February 2017, Pechersky District Court of Kyiv closed an administrative case, not finding ''

corpus delicti (Latin for "body of the crime"; plural: ), in Western law, is the principle that a crime must be proven to have occurred before a person could be convicted of having committed that crime. For example, a person cannot be tried for larceny unle ...

'' in Leschenko's actions. Judge Volodymyr Karabanʹ, who made the court decision, together with his family members, was repeatedly involved in scandals.

Fight at the Verkhovna Rada

On 9 February 2017, people's deputy from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc Ivan Melnychuk started a verbal dispute with Serhiy Leschenko in the session hall of the Verkhovna Rada. The dispute started over a

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

post written by Leschenko, wherein he claimed deputies from PPB faction were purposely deteriorating the anticorruption committee meetings so that they could accuse the committee of being a failure later. Ivan Melnychuk used physical force and damaged Leschenko's suit.

Case of Paul Manafort

In August 2016, Serhiy Leshchenko announced that the

Party of Regions A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

, shortly before

's election as the President of Ukraine, paid to the American political consultant

Paul Manafort Paul John Manafort Jr. (; born April 1, 1949) is an American former lobbyist, political consultant, and attorney. A long-time Republican Party campaign consultant, he chaired the Trump presidential campaign from June to August 2016. Manafo ...

for his services. According to Leshchenko, the expenses of Ukraine related to his activities exceeded $ 12 million. In February 2017, correspondence between allegedly Leshchenko and Paul Manafort's daughter Jess appeared on the Internet. This correspondence, posted by anonymous hackers in English with grammatical errors, was perceived by one Russian media outlet as

blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...

. Manafort confirmed the authenticity of the texts hacked from his daughter's phone. He added that he had received similar texts to his own phone number from the same address appearing to be affiliated with Leshchenko. He also said he did not respond directly to those letters, but resend them to his lawyer. Manafort refused to show these messages to journalists. In March 2017, Leshchenko surrendered to the

NABU Nabu (, ) is the Babylonian patron god of literacy, scribes, wisdom, and the rational arts. He is associated with the classical planet Mercury in Babylonian astronomy. Etymology and meaning The Akkadian means 'announcer' or 'authorised pe ...

documents that, presumably, could prove Manafort's involvement in offshore schemes. These documents showed a $750,000 payment for the supply of 501

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

s to a company ''David Manafort'', from a

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

-registered offshore company, through a bank in

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...

. Leshchenko urged to begin an investigation of this situation both in Ukraine and in the USA. In March 2019, Manafort "was convicted on eight criminal counts including

bank fraud Bank fraud is the use of potentially illegal means to obtain money, assets, or other property owned or held by a financial institution, or to obtain money from depositors by fraudulently posing as a bank or other financial institution. In many ins ...

tax fraud Tax evasion or tax fraud is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trust (property), trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax au ...

and failing to file a foreign bank account report." Together with the court sentence of 2018, the total sentence of Manafort was 7.5 years. At the beginning of Donald Trump's presidency, Manafort demanded that the White House and

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

actively pressure Ukrainian officials to investigate and discredit Leshchenko because Leshchenko had published information highly critical of Manafort's political consulting work in Ukraine. Manafort provided information to

Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani ( , ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and Disbarment, disbarred lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney ...

to smear Leshchenko and entered into a joint legal defense agreement between Manafort's attorneys and Trump's attorneys. Manafort and Giuliani also discussed how to deal with

Marie Yovanovitch Marie Louise "Masha" Yovanovitch (born November 11, 1958) is a Canadian-American former diplomat and retired senior member of the United States Foreign Service. She served in multiple State Department posts, including Senior Advisor to the Under ...

. On 10 May 2019, 107th

Mayor of New York City The mayor of New York City, officially mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The Mayoralty in the United States, mayor's office administers all ...

and attorney to US President

, Rudolf Giuliani, announced that he had hoped to meet in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

with Ukrainian president-elect,

. They planned to discuss foreign countries interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as the involvement of Hunter Biden (son of 47th

vice president of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest ranking office in the Executive branch of the United States government, executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks f ...

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

) at '' Burisma'', a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky. However, the next day Giuliani canceled his trip. Giuliani said that there are enemies of the US President in the election headquarters of Zelensky. "I'm not going to go because I think I'm walking into a group of people that are enemies of the president, in some cases, enemies of the United States. And in one case already convicted person who has found to be involved in assisting of the Democrats in the 2016 elections... Gentleman by the name of Leschenko who supplied a ''Blackbook''," said Giuliani in an interview with ''

Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

''. At around this time the Zelensky administration (whom Leshchenko had been advising) started to distance itself from Leshchenko reportedly because of concerns about being seen as too close to him while he was attracting criticism from Giuliani. Leshchenko said that the Prosecutor General, Yuriy Lutsenko, was to blame for the scandalous situation, he rejected the accusation of forging "black bookkeeping" materials. In response, Lutsenko said that "Leshchenko, often on a not-free-of-charge basis from the US Embassy in Ukraine kicked up a row this scandal, trying to help one of the presidential candidates in 2016" and he called Leshchenko a "political

skunk Skunks are mammals in the family Mephitidae. They are known for their ability to spray a liquid with a strong, unpleasant scent from their anal glands. Different species of skunk vary in appearance from black-and-white to brown, cream or gi ...

Fight on television

After being live on the "Newsone" channel Ihor Mosiychuk accused Leschenko of discrediting Oleh Lyashko, who was leading (the parliamentary party) Radical Party. The quarrel outgrew into a fight.

Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Railways

On 18 December 2019 the Honcharuk Government appointed Leshchenko a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Railways. The

Shmyhal Government The Shmyhal government () is the current government of Ukraine, formed on 4 March 2020 and led by Denys Shmyhal, who was previously serving as Deputy Prime Minister in the Honcharuk government, and the Governor of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. Shmyh ...

did not renew this contract and on 22 September 2021 Leshchenko left the Supervisory Board.Without Adjuner and Leshchenko: Cabinet of Ministers terminates powers of chairman and 3 members of UZ supervisory board

(22 September 2021) Leshchenko was reappointed to the Supervisory Board on 29 December 2021.Leshchenko returns to the UZ supervisory board

(29 December 2021)

Publications

Books

* Leshchenko, S. ''Американська сага Павла Лазаренка (American saga of Pavlo Lazarenko)''. 2013 * Leshchenko, S. ''Межигірський синдром (Mezhyhiria Syndrome)''. 2014

Academic publications

Awards

* 2004 – runner up of the "Best journalist investigation - 2004" (partners' project of the institute of media, French Embassy in Ukraine and the Mohyla School of Journalism). * 2006 - winner of the Oleksandr Kryvenko award. * 2006 - winner in nomination " Person of the year in printed media area" as a part of the national program "Person of the Year". * 2006 - "Person of the year" in the "Leaders of Ukrainian Internet"contest, organized by the internet.us magazine. * 2011- eastern partnership journalist award from the fundacija reporterow organization for the article-investigation "Offshore roof for Yanukovych and Kliuev". * 2013 - Gerd Bucerius Free Press for Eastern Europe Award. * 2013 - 55 place in the "Korrespondent" magazine list of 100 most influential people of Ukraine. * 2013 - Fritt Ord Free Media Awards 2013 * 2014 - one of a "100 heroes of information", first released by the "Reporters Without Borders" organization. * 2014 - one of a TOP-100 bloggers of Ukraine according to "Fakty" ICTV.

Notes

References

External links

* *
Blog at Ukrainska Pravda

Serhiy Leshchenko
on

Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada ( ; VR), officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is the unicameralism, unicameral parliament of Ukraine. It consists of 450 Deputy (legislator), deputies presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovn ...

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Leshchenko, Serhiy 1980 births Living people Journalists from Kyiv Ukrainian anti-corruption activists Politicians from Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni People of the Euromaidan Independent politicians of Petro Poroshenko Bloc Eighth convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Ukrainska Pravda 21st-century Ukrainian journalists Democratic Alliance (Ukraine) politicians Ukrainian LGBTQ rights activists Ukrainian Railways Free Media Awards winners