The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv chose businessman Ihor Kolomoyskyi as a preventive measure in the case of the contract killing of lawyer Serhii Karpenko.
According to the courtʼs decision, Kolomoiskyi will remain in custody until July 7, 2024, without the right to post bail, the "Grat" correspondent reports from the courtroom.
The investigation believes that in 2003 the businessman ordered an assassination attempt on the director of the Ukrainian-American consulting company "Fargo" Serhii Karpenko. The Prosecutor Generalʼs Office is conducting "urgent investigative actions" to expose all those involved in the crime.
At the center of this story is the enterprise "Dniprospetsstal". Among its owners in 2003 were businessmen Hryhorii Surkis and Kostyantyn Hryhoryshyn. In July 2003, Hryhoryshyn decided to sell 15% of “Dniprospetsstal” to Viktor Pinchuk, a businessman and son-in-law of the then President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. Lawyer Serhii Karpenko was the guarantor of this agreement.
At the same time, Kolomoiskyi, the then owner of the “Privat” group, also fought for the plant. According to Karpenko, the oligarch invited him to his office and demanded to "replay the situation with the shareholdersʼ meeting at Dniprospetsstal." Kolomoiskyi wanted a lawyer to help annul the decision of the general meeting of shareholders, which allowed Pinchuk to buy shares. Karpenko refused. The media wrote that after that, in July 2003, Karpenko turned to law enforcement agencies with a statement about threats from Kolomoiskyi.
In a few weeks, Karpenkoʼs partner was attacked and his skull was broken. According to the investigation, the killers were simply mistaken. Already on August 16, 2003, Karpenko himself was attacked in Feodosia. Four unknown persons beat him on the head with a metal rod and inflicted numerous stab wounds, damaging his right lung and stomach. His wife prevented him from killing the lawyer — he miraculously survived. In a few days, the perpetrators of the attempt were arrested. The court sent them behind bars on April 28, 2005.
- Since September 2, 2023, Kolomoiskyi has been in the detention center of the Security Service of Ukraine on suspicion of fraud and property laundering by the Bureau of Economic Security. The preventive measure on this suspicion provided for his arrest until June 2 with a bail of 1.9 billion hryvnias. However, bail is not provided for the new suspicion.