Case description
The NABU and SAPO accuse former MP Oleksandr Shepelev of embezzling over UAH 300 million from Rodovid Bank. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison, along with confiscation of his property.
Oleksandr Shepelev is a former multi-term MP who was initially a member of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc before later joining the Party of Regions. He held positions in the Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Finance and Banking and the Special Control Commission on Privatization.
In 2009, the state acquired a 99.9% stake in Rodovid Bank OJSC. According to the investigation, at the end of June that year, Shepelev conspired with his wife and the bank's temporary administrator, Shcherbyna, to embezzle bank funds by fabricating fictitious financial debts.
Shepelev pressured the temporary administrator of Rodovid Bank into hiring Briarei Law Firm to “recover” the supposed debt, leading to the signing of fraudulent documents. Officially, the funds were allocated as payment for renting a building in Kyiv.
A total of over UAH 301 million was transferred for services that were never rendered. These funds were then turned into cash and embezzled by Shepelev. Nearly $25 million of the stolen money was funneled to a trusted individual and later used to form the authorized capital of several companies, with shares registered under Shepelev’s son’s name.
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The former MP has been charged under Articles 191 and 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In December 2024, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv found Shepelev’s wife guilty of aiding the misappropriation of funds through abuse of office and sentenced her to seven years in prison.
Shepelev is also implicated in multiple other criminal cases, including treason, contract killings, and embezzlement. He is accused of orchestrating the murder of banker Serhii Kyrychenko in 2003 in Donetsk and ordering the 2006 assassinations of Rodovid Bank Vice President Serhii Diadechko and MIA Colonel Roman Yerokhin.
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, Shepelev had been working for the FSB since 2014. Upon his arrest, SSU officers found an ID card from the so-called “Ministry of State Security of the DPR” in his possession. In July 2014, he escaped from an emergency hospital while under guard following his extradition, and bribed the security guard. For this, the Desnianskyi District Court of Kyiv sentenced him to seven years in prison, along with UAH 8,500 fine, and the confiscation of all his property.
Shepelev is currently being held at the Lukianivska pre-trial detention center.
