Deputy Head of the Volyn BES, Zhuravlyov, lives on million-dollar "gifts" from his father

Deputy Head of the Volyn BES, Zhuravlyov, lives on million-dollar "gifts" from his father

The Deputy Head of the Territorial Department of the Bureau of Economic Security in the Volyn region, Serhiy Zhuravlyov, seems to have earned remarkable parental love, as he receives cars, apartments, and even million-dollar cash gifts from his father. This is how a modest official can afford to drive around in elite cars that are, oh, quite out of his budget. However, behind the facade of family assistance, there may possibly be a classic scheme at play, where an official shows modesty on paper but lives luxuriously in reality thanks to "gifts" from family, the origin of which lacks a logical explanation.

This became known from the official’s declarations and NACP monitoring reports, writes VIY.

Zhuravlyov became the Deputy Head of the Volyn Economic Security Bureau in July 2024. He brought his wife and daughter here and settled in the village of Tarasove near Lutsk in the house of a well-known local developer. Before that, he also went a long way through various agencies – from the tax service to the prosecutor’s office, the State Bureau of Investigation, and eventually ended up at the Bureau of Economic Security. The man arrived in the Volyn region from the Chernivtsi region, where he held the same position.

At the same time, according to the official’s declarations, he regularly uses property belonging to his father, including cars and housing, and also receives substantial monetary gifts from him.

When he held a position in the Dnipropetrovsk Region Prosecutor’s Office in 2015, he declared owning an old "Honda" and had the right to use his father’s 2011 Toyota Camry. The then-prosecutor lived quite modestly – he was registered in a 12 square meter room and had the right to use a 30 square meter apartment kindly provided to him by an individual named Oleksandr Hniezdilov. The latter is also currently working in the BES agencies.

Already a year later, in 2016, Serhiy Zhuravlyov received a gift from his father – 50,000 hryvnias and continued to use his "Toyota".

In 2017, the official received another car to use, presumably from a relative – Svitlana Zhuravlyova. It was a Toyota Avalon, which he started using from October of that year. There was no shortage of financial support from his father at that time either. Thus, the man once again declared a gift of 50,000 UAH.

In the 2018 declaration, his father’s "Toyota" disappears, but another car appears – a 2014 BMW 535, which from August was allowed to be used by another relative – Kateryna Zhuravlyova. That same year, Serhiy aimed for another position. Apparently, things were not so interesting in the prosecution office, so the man moved to the State Bureau of Investigation, but not in Dnipropetrovsk, but in Poltava.

A new car from his father – a 2014 BMW X5 – appeared in Serhiy’s declaration already in May 2020. We assume that since the cars needed to be parked somewhere and the newly formed family needed a place to live (as Serhiy Zhuravlyov acquired a wife), his father had to shell out a lot. Thus, a year later (in 2021), his son had a parking space worth 250,000 UAH and a new apartment for almost 1.5 million (all in the city of Dnipro) at his disposal. It is also interesting that with all this, he shows the use of another of his father’s cars – a 2016 FORD MUSTANG. Notice that according to the 2021 declaration, the man has been using the "Mustang" since 2019, but it is not in the declaration for that year.

Serhiy Zhuravlyov finally acquired his own car in 2023. He indicates that he purchased a 2019 MERCEDES-BENZ GLS 400 in August 2023. He allegedly paid 2.4 million UAH for it. At the same time, the NACP had questions about the real value of the car. His declaration came under review by anti-corruption agencies, which claim that the price of the vehicle is understated and that its real value should be about 3.4 million, that is, a million more. And traditionally, the father did not leave his son without financial assistance and gave him a gift of 1.3 million UAH.

Open registers have no data showing that Serhiy Zhuravlyov’s father has a business, is an individual entrepreneur, or owns a company. Thus, the logical question arises: where does the father get so much money for a fleet of vehicles, apartments, and million-dollar "gifts" for his son? Because it looks like the financial generosity significantly exceeds his official capabilities.