Court cancels suspicion notice to Denys Ivanov, who posted video about policeman's wealth

The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv has canceled the suspicion notice previously issued to Denys Ivanov, son of Valeriy Ivanov, professor and head of the journalism department at Taras Shevchenko University, reports Sudovyi Reporter, citing the ruling dated February 6.

According to the media outlet, in 2018, Denys Ivanov edited a video about the lifestyle and wealth of Yevhen Shevtsov, the then deputy department head of the Main Investigation Office, and posted it online. The Facebook group ACAB.UA, with which Ivanov Jr. was affiliated, posted photos of a Range Rover, luxurious apartments and a country house owned by the police officer and his wife, as well as photos of the restaurant Touch Café in central Kyiv and the Golden Fleece club in Odesa. ACAB.UA also alleged that the company owned by Shevtsov’s wife, LeoGaming Pay, was involved in withdrawing bookmakers’ and online casinos’ funds to Russia.

This happened as Shevtsov was competing for the position of the State Bureau of Investigation chief. After the reports, he lost the appointment.

Denys Ivanov was suspected of involvement with a criminal organization collecting private information for the purpose of blackmail. In 2019, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv banned two dozen websites that wrote about Shevtsov and his wife's business.

The organization is believed to be run by a man who has been convicted of committing several crimes for personal gain. In 2018, he allegedly instructed Ivanov to organize a trip to Hora village (Kyiv oblast) and use a drone to film Shevtsov's house and conduct visual surveillance.

Other people went on the trip instead, with Ivanov only editing the content and posting it online. Shevtsov and his wife claimed that an unidentified person later wrote to them and demanded $10,000 for not spreading fabricated and false defamatory information during a staged rally in front of the Ministry of Internal Affairs building.

Criminals are also said to have contacted the then first deputy head of the State Fiscal Service's Kyiv HQ, Ihor Skorokhod, demanding that a court ruling in the case which they said concerned the interests of the Shevtsovs be canceled. According to the investigation, the criminals also demanded money from Skorokhod for not staging rallies against him. Then they offered to join in the blackmail by demanding $200 thousand from the Shevtsovs, promising a share of $50 thousand. Skorokhod discussed this with the “criminal organization's” leader in the fitness club 5 Element, after which the latter was detained.

In 2019, an indictment was filed against six persons. They were charged of involvement with a criminal organization, extortion, and interference with private life. The victims are the Shevtsov couple, tax officer Skorokhod, and four others. The materials regarding Denys Ivanov were separated into a separate case, as he had been put on wanted persons list.

In June 2022, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv canceled the suspicion notice to Ivanov due to the notice being insufficiently specific and the claims against him being evidently unfounded. In the court's view, Ivanov had not acquired suspect status. In particular, the suspicion notice to Ivanov was filed on February 15, 2019, and he officially left Ukraine two weeks later. The prosecutor failed to provide evidence as to why they could not deliver the suspicion notice to Ivanov in person. It is impossible to determine from the fiscal postal receipt where and to whom the suspicion notice was sent. However, the Court of Appeal canceled this ruling. Ivanpv's lawyer contested it again.

The second time, the court concluded that the content of the suspicion notice and the legal qualification of the crime were stated improperly.

The court believes that the functions that Ivanov allegedly performed as part of the criminal organization, namely collecting and disseminating information that the victims and their close relatives would like to keep secret, do not have the characteristics of a crime. No one disproved that Ivanov was a journalist and a contributor to a journalist investigation project. Therefore, the form and content of Ivanov’s actions constituted reporting and matched the definition of investigative journalism as “systematic, in-depth, original research or reporting, which often entails disclosure of secrets.” The court also believes that Ivanov’s actions can be considered autonomously from the criminal organization, since the connection between the two has not been proven. The facts do not prove Ivanov's involvement in another serious or grave crime. All the threats and demands against the Shevtsovs, as well as against tax officer Skorokhod, which were mentioned in the suspicion notice, were made by other individuals.

Furthermore, at the time when the unidentified person threatened Shevtsov, the video content edited by Ivanov had already been posted to several websites, which makes it impossible to use disclosing it as a threat.

The prosecutor requested that the court hearing challenging the suspicion be held in his absence. He later did not exercise his right to appeal. In view of this, the court ruling to cancel the suspicion notice has become legally binding. But Denys Ivanov is still on the Ministry of Internal Affairs wanted list.