How to become a raider from a promising lawyer: A step-by-step guide

Currently in Ukraine, we are in times when every other official, politician, businessman, or activist is ready to tear their shirt off in cries of honesty, legality, and how the country is moving towards Europe. In reality, one should not be surprised and immediately believe the shouter at their word. Because, as practice shows, such people shout in two cases — either the next elections are near or, under patriotic slogans, they have decided to carve out another juicy piece for themselves.

Such is the case with the well-known in certain circles Kyiv lawyer and activist Roman Tytykalo.

However, let’s start from the beginning. Roman, a native of Kyiv, graduated from the Kyiv National University of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. He began a successful career at the State Treasury Administration in the capital, and three years ago, he opened his own law office "Tytykalo and Partners," went into politics, and began to actively engage in public activities. Currently, Roman is an authorized representative of the deputy faction of the Kyiv regional party "Samopomich," head of the committee on regulations, deputy activities, legality, order, interaction with law enforcement agencies, and corruption prevention.

Since the country is undergoing an ATO, the topic of supporting the frontline and ATO members has become fashionable, and Roman has not stood aside — he is now coordinating the "Legal Aid for ATO Participants" project.

Looking at this track record, an ordinary reader may truly see a European, new person working for society’s benefit. But is this true?

The general public got to know Roman Tytykalo after a court hearing in the case of Semen Semenchenko.

In March of this year, a court session was held in the Kyivo-Svyatoshynskyi court over a lawsuit filed by lawyer Tytykalo, as a legal representative of the commander of the "Donbas" battalion, Semen Semenchenko, against journalist Volodymyr Boyko. The lawsuit’s essence was that journalist Boyko dared to write quite unflattering things about the MP and commander — Volodymyr Boyko claimed in his material that commander Semenchenko was actually a former convict with the last name Hryshyn.

However, lawyer Roman Tytykalo was aware of all the life vicissitudes of his client. But once he agreed to provide legal assistance to ATO participants, he had to maintain the brand.

Without thinking much, lawyer Tytykalo submitted a request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, slightly "altering" his client’s surname. Naturally, the MIA responded that such people were not mentioned in the database of those who served time.

When the truth emerged in court, and journalists pressed the cunning lawyer to the wall, he admitted he had known his client’s real surname from the start. But he preferred to keep quiet about it.

When lawyer Tytykalo faced the threat of criminal proceedings for using a fake document, he quickly evaded responsibility by stating that he received the certificate by mail, and the military prosecutor’s office has indeed launched a criminal case to find out who’s to blame in such a falsification — whether it was lawyer Tytykalo for knowingly incorrectly stating the client’s surname in the request or the employees of the MIA.

Anyway, since April, the case of Semen Semenchenko, along with that of his lawyer Roman Tytykalo, has been intensively swept under the rug.

These methods of operation are entirely in the spirit of the disgraced lawyer.

During his career, Roman Tytykalo has held various positions. In most of these roles, Tytykalo worked as a legal advisor. Simply put, he helped the top management of enterprises find loopholes in the legislation for their own benefit.

However, filling others’ pockets is good, but filling your own is even better.

An example? In 2007, lawyer Tytakalo worked as a legal advisor to the General Director of the National Research Center for Radiation Medicine, Volodymyr Bebeshko. Coincidentally, his brother, Volodymyr Tytykalo, was working as the chief accountant at the time.

Learning that the center occupies large areas in Pushcha-Vodytsia and in Kyiv, on Melnykova Street, the Tytykalo brothers created a shell company "Metalloprofile." Thanks to good friendly relations with the director Volodymyr Bebeshko, the firm signed an agreement with the Center to transfer part of the Center’s land to "Metalloprofile" for... office center construction.

It’s not surprising that when the Center’s management changed, the truth came to light. The court twice rejected "Metalloprofile’s" claim against the Center for land transfer.

But Roman is not accustomed to retreating and has already employed "heavy artillery" in the form of the entire people’s deputy Volodymyr Aryev. The people’s deputy simply inundated the law enforcement agencies with inquiries explaining that the inconvenient management of the center was mired in corruption and needed to be "crushed" with inspections. Moreover, the MP and the lawyer suggest not only checking the financial documentation but everything overall — even submitting complete lists of the center’s patients to the police, numbering in the thousands.

Currently, the management of the National Research Center for Radiation Medicine is having a hard time — they have to engage in correspondence with the police and attend courts because the guys are working diligently and using various methods to get their slice of land in Kyiv at the expense of the "Chernobyl victims".

Overall, Roman quickly oriented himself after Maidan, making a name for himself on the heroes of the "Heavenly Hundred," supposedly representing the interests of the murdered relatives. The case, as usual, went silent, but the PR did its job. In local council elections, Roman first ran as a candidate from the "Democratic Alliance," but when they refused to have him, a raider and open PR man, Tytykalo quickly changed his political views and went into "Samopomich."

Tytykalo’s long-standing friendship with MP from "UDAR," Vadym Pyshnyak, whose active business activities repeatedly became precedents with scandals, pickets, and courts, also helped him become a deputy.

By the way, it was Vadym Pyshnyak who laundered money on the scandalous construction in the capital on 15 Lvivska Street, simply taking away housing from Ukrainian military personnel, including ATO members.

But for some reason, within the framework of his project "Legal Assistance to ATO Participants," Roman Tytykalo did not rush against his best friend to protect the military and their rights. Perhaps only selected ATO participants, like Semen Semenchenko, receive help from the project’s lawyers, not those who stood against the scandalous builder Pyshnyak.

Having already entered the regional council, Roman Tytykalo continues to build a land-related career.

"How much forest does a person need for hunting? A hectare? Maybe five? But the people from the Party of Regions think differently! For instance, in the families of the notorious Nestor Shufrych and Volodymyr Sivkovych, it was decided that hunting wild animals should be done on a grand scale, covering the territories of two entire regions, on forest tracts totaling about 40 thousand hectares.

In 2010, the Zhytomyr Regional Council, headed by regional Zapalovskyi I.A. at that time, made decision No.53 to grant the LLC "Hunting Club ’SKS’," for 15 years, hunting lands covering 19,859.5 hectares (the forest tracts of Radomyshl Forestry of the Zhytomyr region) — this is almost 70% of the Radomyshl forest fund.

The father of one of the directors of this company, Olksandr Volodymyrovych – Volodymyr Sivkovych, was the deputy to Nestor Shufrych, who at the time was the Secretary of the National Defence and Security Council, his closest ally and lobbyist of the interests of the "Rostov fugitive’s" family, who is currently on the run, hiding in the territory of the Russian Federation," - such angry blogs are written by Roman Tytykalo. It’s completely unclear why Roman Serhiyovych needed to dig into the affairs of the Zhytomyr Regional Council and why precisely in land matters that are not within Tytakalo’s competence.

The thing is that the "Hunting Club SKS" owns land not only in Zhytomyr but also in Kyiv regions. And young reformer Roman Tytykalo is intensively dealing with this issue. So, at the end of May, during the regular meeting of the Standing Commission on Regulation, Deputy Activities, Legitimacy, Order, Interaction with Law Enforcement Agencies, and Corruption Prevention, the entire commission, headed by its head Roman Tytykalo, examined several issues regarding the allocation of hunting lands.

Interestingly, Roman began stigmatizing the "family" and the Zhytomyr Regional Council back in April. But considering the question of granting hunting lands in the Kyiv region to the same "SKS Hunting Club," owned by Yanukovych’s people, the commission began at the end of May. And instead of fully and angrily prohibiting leasing Ukraine’s lands to Yanukovych’s people, the issue remained on the agenda.

As one of the deputies of the Kyiv Regional Council told us, back in 2012, the Kyiv Regional Council adopted a resolution according to which more than 11 hectares of land were removed from the reserve fund of the region. They simply moved the borders of the territories and objects of the local significance protected reserve fund — made technical documentation, installed boundary markers. The original resolution, for obvious reasons, cannot be found on the council’s website.

In particular, the land "chopped off" included the Stavyschensky park, Vorzel reserve, Sulyma park, and the Kyrykovy tract landscape reserve. The convenient land was planned for sale, but the revolution began. Yanukovych, along with his closest associates, fled, the "regionals" fell into disrepute, and the power changed. But no one is in a hurry to return the lands to the people of Ukraine.

And where is the Standing Commission on Regulation, Deputy Activities, Legitimacy, Order, the Interaction with Law Enforcement Agencies, and Corruption Prevention? Where is its head, Roman Tytykalo?

Want to know the answer to this question? Roman has already negotiated with the former "regionals." They say he reached agreements with everyone except "Hunting Club SKS," which he stigmatized so angrily.

At the regular meeting of the Standing Commission, given the regulations and the profile area, the deputies considered several issues regarding the allocation of hunting lands.

Back in 2012, the Kyiv Regional Council adopted a resolution (number mentioned above), regarding local significance protected reserve fund objects of Kyiv region, with which more than 11.1 hectares of land were unlawfully removed from the reserve fund. The original resolution is "unlikely" to be found on the regional council’s website.

Ukrainian people’s deputy from "UDAR," Vadym Pyshnyak, became known not thanks to his active parliamentary activities, but because he always tried to resolve his business interests through legal manipulation. Those who got in his way were faced with threats and lawsuits. Mr. Pyshnyak’s active public activities were always accompanied by scandals, pickets, and lawsuits. For example, the conflict on Lvivska, 15, where Pyshnyak’s team decided to launder money once again and took housing from poor military personnel.

According to the Center employees, former Center employee Volodymyr Tytykalo stands behind "Metalloprofile".

If you search for information on the Internet, you won’t find much about Volodymyr. It’s worth noting, however, that in 2007, when the "Metalloprofile" company allegedly signed a land transfer agreement with the Center for private possession, former Center head Volodymyr Bebeshko was consulted by Volodymyr Tytykalo’s brother — Roman, the well-known Kyiv lawyer and current fervent protector of ATO warriors’ rights.

Debt collector lawyer

If you dig into Roman Tytykalo’s biography, you can find interesting facts — for three years, Roman worked as a professional debt collector at the state company "Ukrgroundnote" — over several years in an official position, he even rose to head the Legal Affairs and Debt Management Division — in simpler terms, becoming a debt collector.