Villain was an example of sightliness: neatly trimmed beard, incrusted wooden walking cane, flowing, dazzling, perfectly logical speech, and the main thing – presentability. And the villain introduced himself as the head of Kyiv regional department of the Fund for Penitentiary Reforms Support named after John Howard.
“These hands have never stolen!..”
In fact, he was not only the head, but also the founder of this department. And he had the primary authority to sign.
At the first meeting, he usually unmercifully criticized the ex-heads of the Fund, branded themselves as hopeless thieves, and emphasized that his no kopeck had ever stuck in his fingers. He also stressed that he facilitated rehabilitation of former convicts and sent medicines to penitentiaries free of charge… In other words, the villain lived, according his words, “by the codes of the underworld”.
His speech and declarations about his honesty affected the youth and the people applying to him like hypnosis. He enjoyed trust. And he used that trust. And hardly anyone among the numerous visitors of the head of the regional department of the Fund knew that no kopeck had indeed stuck in his fingers. Because it was mostly hryvnias and dollars that stuck in his fingers. Here is the way he did that.
“200 $ Villain”
This is the way the people called him, who learned him better after several months of co-operating. He deserved to have such a nickname.
The villain offered those people, who applied to him requesting for help, to join the Fund. The compulsory condition of acceptance was payment of membership fee totalling $ 200, which as he said were credited to the fund’s account and then are used to buy medicines and food for the convicts.
People requesting for help – they were mostly the ones who lent somebody money and now trying to get their money back with the villain’s help – paid this small (comparing to the total sum to be returned) money like lambs. The villain kindly accepted the fees, and the applicant submitted an application on joining the Fund. After that the villain found a debtor without fail. And… offered him to join the Fund for the said $ 200.
Such offer was also favourable for the debtor: what is two hundred bucks against the total sum of debt! And the debtor paid money and submitted an application on joining the Fund!
The villain said to the person asking for help that he was dealing with the debt return, and calmed down the debtor with the promise of his mighty protection!
But once the villain backed the wrong horse.
Some Igor, a businessman, applied one day to him. He complained that the bandits were unfairly shaking him down: he says, they took him to the woods, put a gun o his head and threatened to kill him if he did not give the money back. The sum of debt was quite considerable – $ 30,000.
Following his well-working scheme, the villain received $ 200 and declared to Igor that there was nothing for him to be afraid of anymore, and if the bandits come again, let them address to him, to the villain.
The bandits came. Igor appealed to the villain as a warrantor of the debt non-return. And they came to the villain.
Having seen who was demanding the return of his money, the villain was confused. It was a criminal boss called “Deer” well known in the criminal establishment and among the employees of the Organized Crime Authority, who was trying to settle the problem amicably.
However, the villain stood his ground. And “Deer” did not want to give ground. In the result, they appealed to the arbitrator – well-known supervisor Antimos.
On their way to Antimos’s dacha, as the villain later told, the guards escorting him offered to “bump” the “Deer” with grenade gun. But the villain, according to his words, refused.
Predictably, Antimos ruled that the villain was wrong.
After this verdict, the “Deer” set to demand his money back with greater pressure. The police proposed the villain to “shop” the “Deer” red-handed. The villain agreed, yet one problem arose: they needed Igor to make the picture complete, but he ran after paying $ 200 to the villain.
The villain had to take up arms. Together with the said walking cane hiding a stiletto inside, he started to wear a revolver in his handbag, which he demonstrated, as well as the stiletto, as if unintentionally, to the newly coming visitors. This demonstration was supposed to prove seriousness of the person to whom they applied. The “Deer’s” actions were particularly annoying for the villain, because the summer 2004 – and this was the time when the described events took place – was the peak hour of his money-making.
One Person with Several Faces
Firstly, the villain started to take an active part in the president election campaign. For this purpose, he rented a flat in Politekhnichna street to arrange an office in it.
The villain fought for the candidates not at all because of the ideology, but because of materialistic intentions. The field of his activity focused on the candidates B.Boiko and A.Rzhavskyi.
Result of the villain’s election campaign held for the candidates was like his attitude to the business: having taken their money, the villain did not start to spare himself for work. Later, according to his words, he and his assistants had to hide themselves from the mentioned B.Boiko, because in Kyiv, for example, as much as 300 people voted him.
Secondly, the villain bought a large Cadillac. And he bought it for… “collective” money.
Having taken $ 7.000 for solving the problem concerning the free pardon of one of the criminal bosses with the help of the board at the President of Ukraine, he thought it would be too early to give this money to those who were supposed to receive it, thus deceiving both people who transferred money via him and those people who were supposed to receive it.
Thirdly, he commenced active business activity. He got fake $ 10.000 from one of his acquaintances and used it as pledge: he took goods on consignment. The seller, having got a bundle of “bucks”, which the villain left in his safe as a money-back guarantee, could not count it because under the mutual consent it was kept sealed.
Fourthly, in summer 2004 the villain and his “team” robbed several firms. Two firms in Donetsk, two more – in Kyiv.
In the capital the villain took off a pawn shop. For this purpose, he regularly brought his ring to this shop as if he had no money. His face was already familiar to everyone there and he raised no suspicion with his visits. But in fact he was learning the details of the pawn shop’s work.
Later, he took off a safe belonging to PTS firm located in Dorogozhytska street. This place was fingered to him by Roman, the firm’s employee.
Roman told the villain that every day the firm’s delivery man collected money from its points of sale and then took the money home.
On his newly bought Cadillac the villain within several weeks was spying on the delivery man learning his route. The delivery man indeed was ending the route in his flat located in the bus station area, entering his house with a bag of money.
The villain decided to take him off on his way to the flat. Would the delivery man stay alive – this question raises many doubts. A team of bullyboys from another city called by the villain has already arrived to Kyiv, when Roman sent a new message: there is a safe full of money in the flat No. 5 leased by PTS firm as an office.
The villain immediately changed his plans for the flat. Neither the guard, nor the watchful neighbours helped. While the partners in crime were turning his plan into reality, the villain with his face well-beseen was sitting on a bench near the house in Dorogozhytska street leaning on his cane with a secret and played the role of a pensioner having his rest, but in fact he was on the watch.
He played that role brilliantly. He saw how the safe was brought and loaded into the boot of the car. And having made sure that everything was done excellently, he went to help with opening the safe.
The safe was opened by a safe-cracker famous in Kyiv. The villain was near. The result of the affair – each of the main characters got nearly $ 1.000. Only Roman, the employee of PTS firm got from the villain for $ 1.000 more – Roman got married and bought a car as a wedding present.
PTS firm declared a reward for the information on the burglars. According to the owner of the firm, the firm even paid a part of the promised sum in advance. Does the firm know about the real participants of the burglary and robbery?
Fifthly, the villain descended to sale of medicines to the penitentiaries. Exactly the sale and not transfer as he always declared!
And, sixthly, he never forgot about his $ 200 gained according to his old well-elaborated scheme.
Any means to an end!
The villain lived together with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in a four-roomed apartment.
One day the passport of his son disappeared. His wife stated that she saw the document lying on the drawer-unit. And the parent tried to calm him down saying that he obviously had lost it somewhere.
Time has passed. The son got a new passport. And completely forgot about the loss. But one day somebody phoned to their apartment. The call was from Odesa. The villain’s son was asked: something like, when he will return the lent money.
Since the son has never lent any money, much less in Odesa, he started to deny and tried to find out about his participation in some shady deal. In the result of the investigation carried out by him, he learned that his Dad had stolen his passport and pasted in a photo of another person. Then the villain’s partners in crime got big money based on this passport.
The son and his family immediately moved to a leased flat. Since that time they live separately from their parents.
And What about the Villain?
In summer 2004 the villain organized a gang. It was they who in March 2005 killed a local businessman in Myronivka, Kyiv region. $ 200 was not enough for the villain any more. He wanted to gain much and at once!
We think that another local businessman Oleksandr T. fingered that man to the villain. Oleksandr T. showed no desire to have a meeting with me. In our telephone conversation he said that he had already been interrogated about this episode, the tragic episode, which became the pinnacle of life of 65-year-old founder of the Kyiv department of the Fund for Penitentiary Reforms Support named after John Howard.
