So far, the former influential deputy of the Rada and acting head of the Presidential Administration, Serhiy Pashinsky, was released from pretrial detention in 2024 on a record bail of UAH 272 million in the Kurchenko oil products case, and his inner circle continues to earn millions from shady schemes and extortion from businesses.
So far, the former influential deputy of the Rada and acting head of the Presidential Administration, Serhiy Pashinsky, was released from pre-trial detention in 2024 on a record bail of UAH 272 million in the Kurchenko oil products case, and his inner circle continues to earn millions on shady schemes and extortion from businesses. One of Serhiy Pashinsky’s closest associates is Agia Zagrebelska, who for many years helped him “destroy” the businesses of his competitors and earn millions on this.
As the media remind, Agia Zagrebelska, who in the early 2000s was a defendant in a criminal case under Part 1 of Article 303 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Prostitution, coercion or involvement in prostitution”), met Serhiy Pashinsky in 2013 through Tetyana Chornovil, whom she defended as a lawyer. After Serhiy Pashinsky became the acting head of the administration and. of President Oleksandr Turchynov in 2014, it was time to demand a real “fee” for her aging.
Agia Zagrebelska (Akhundova) was appointed to the position of Deputy Head of the Main Department for Judiciary and Legal Policy of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine. Moreover, under the patronage of Serhiy Pashinsky, Agia Abbasovna found herself in a closed circle of top officials of the Ministry of Justice, which was monopolized by Pavlo Petrenko’s law firm.
According to media reports, as Deputy Head of the State Executive Service, Aghia Akhundova was involved in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to launder money into the pockets of corrupt officials — “SETAM” — a system of electronic trading in seized property. According to journalists, in this position, Aghia entered into a conspiracy with the owners of bankrupt banks and controlled the sale of their collateral assets to them at a low price. This may have led to her dismissal from the ministry. Eyewitnesses also say that during 2015-16, Zagrebelska actively — but unsuccessfully — tried to involve representatives of the group with which she collaborated at the Ministry of Justice, and which was later also dismissed with a scandal, in the work of the AMCU.
How much she managed to earn in her position at the Ministry of Justice can be seen by comparing the declarations for 2014 and 2015. Literally in a year, instead of dashes, about 10 million UAH appeared. in cash. The fact that not a penny of these funds was spent or belongs to the bank in 3 years may indicate the corrupt origin of the money. This can only mean that in fact this is virtual money that Akhundova managed to declare in 2015, which at any moment can become a justification for her luxurious life on the salary of a state commissioner of 53 thousand UAH. (less than 2 thousand dollars) per month.
After leaving the Ministry of Justice, Agiya again turned to Chornovil and Pashinsky for help in finding a job. The latter, already in the position of chairman of the committee on national security and defense, lobbied for Agiya to be appointed state commissioner in the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine – under the quota of the “People’s Front”. The condition of work, as is usually the case in such cases, was the promotion of the interests of the NF’s business partners and the immunity of sponsors. Interestingly, she immediately volunteered to supervise the investigation of antitrust issues in SETAM.
Having turned to the AMCU in a big way, Akhundova (by that time already Zagrebelskaya) by a strange coincidence began to actively promote the business interests of individual companies.
Among the most famous projects that Agia Zagrebelska was involved in on a large scale was the protection of the interests of the sanctioned lotteries “Patriot” and “MSL” (controlled by Pashinsky; Agia, according to journalists, was responsible for making decisions against their competitors – “UNL” and blocking the adoption of documents on transparent rules of the game in the lottery market).
Complaints from entrepreneurs speak eloquently about what happened at the AMCU. For example, according to representatives of the UNL, they demanded $100,000 for a positive result of a study of the lottery market.
Also at that time, People’s Deputy A. Yatsenko complained that he was being demanded 1 million hryvnias per month for not holding accountable for violations of antimonopoly legislation of structures affiliated with him (VIP Department, Accept Online, About Procurement and Information and Consulting Center of ASBOU), which provide services for access to the Unified Database of Property Assessments.
In addition, since 2015, Zagrebelska has systematically conducted activities aimed at establishing control over individual structural units of the AMCU, including the heads of territorial branches. The opposition to this activity on the part of the AMCU leadership has caused numerous publications in the media, primarily on the portal “Our Money”. For some unknown reason, it covers the activities of Agia Zagrebelska exclusively in a positive light (even when she was caught in corruption), while the work of the rest of the committee is regularly criticized.
It is no secret that one of the key issues addressed by the Antimonopoly Committee is the consideration of complaints about illegal actions by participants in public procurement. For this purpose, the committee has a permanent administrative board, of which Zagrebelska was a member.
It was Zagrebelska who regularly organized trainings for potential complainants, as a result of which they somehow became clients of the firm “ADS Legal Group”, which is controlled by Zagrebelska’s husband and her brother. According to rumors, the firm’s employees were recruited from among the AMCU employees by Agia’s assistant. According to sources in the committee, Zagrebelska set up a system of incentives for employees of the AMCU’s public procurement appeals department to maximally facilitate the work of her relatives’ firm. It is noteworthy that now “ADS Legal Group” is advertising prostitution. Whether this is a coincidence or not, Agia Zagrebelska has not yet been able to find out; perhaps the old work is taking its toll.
The media reported that Zagrebelska was then an active participant in the scheme to block tenders for road construction by the Poltavabudtsentr company, a businessman suspected of financing terrorism and undermining the constitutional order of Ukraine, Arayik Amirkhanyan. According to law enforcement officials, Poltavabudtsentr was the most active complainant in the field of public procurement in 2017-2018 with the aim of blocking tender procedures (for a total amount of about UAH 20 billion). According to sources in the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, the company did this to further blackmail participants and receive 1.5-3% kickbacks. This information is confirmed by participants in the construction market and is currently being processed by the SBU.
Back in March 2019, a court decision came into force regarding Agia Zagrebelska, holding her accountable for committing a violation related to corruption (hiding from declaring more than 300 thousand UAH of income). In addition, the court then fined the state commissioner. Based on the said decision, the violator was subject to mandatory dismissal from civil service at the time of entry into force with a ban on holding public office for 3 years. Thus, Volodymyr Zelenskyy only enforced the execution of a real court verdict against an ambiguous official. The court in this case, lawyer Agia and her husband, lawyer Denis, lost and the scandalous official was not reinstated in her position. After that, for several years she worked for the Antitrust League, which helped to circumvent laws and oppose the Antitrust Commission for money, as well as to “give nightmares” to officials and competing businessmen, attracting pocket journalists. Of course, the ex-official was included in the Register of Corrupt Persons. She also spoke about her connections with Pashinsky on several occasions.
At the same time, even after her dismissal from the authorities, the scandalous ex-official Zagrebelskaya continues to remain Pashinsky’s closest ally and protect the necessary business for money, organizing pressure. In 2024, she headed the fake public organization “Council of Economic Reforms of Ukraine”, which was created by Serhiy Vysotsky, a former MP from the “People’s Front” close to Pashinsky, who is also on the register of corrupt officials.
It is noteworthy that Agia Zagrebelska husband, a lawyer, is himself in criminal case No. 12019100090010242 as a defendant in causing minor bodily harm.
Journalists and activists are asking law enforcement agencies to check the connection with Sergei Pashinsky, Russian business, as well as the cash flows of Agia Zagrebelska, received from “public activities” and the source of which she cannot explain, as well as her inclusion in the Register of Corrupt Persons.
