Salary 3 million and elite real estate in «Zoloche»: how the family of the non-public deputy head of the SBI Rostyslav Pekar got rich

Journalists have identified the deputy head of the State Bureau of Investigations, about whom there has been no public information until now. The name of Rostyslav Pekar is absent both from the official SBI website, and from the declarations registry, and from various  Bureau reports.

This is stated in the investigation by Bihus.Info.

Journalists dug up the biography of this “secret” official and found expensive real estate owned by relatives, his wife’s business that scaled alongside her husband’s career, and a possible explanation for the “secrecy”. According to Bihus.Info sources, Rostyslav Pekar became the deputy director of the State Bureau of Investigations under Oleksiy Sukhachov in 2025. Although such an appointment requires an open competition, there is no information about it being held. Moreover, there are no mentions of Pekar as a deputy – neither in declarations, nor on the website or in the Bureau’s reports, nor even in Google.

Rostyslav Pekar gets into an official car near his house in “Zoloche”

At the same time, such “non-publicity” does not prevent the deputy director from receiving a salary of over 3 million hryvnias per year and using a new official Toyota Prado worth about 60 thousand dollars.

Before joining the SBI in 2021, Pekar served 20 years in the tax police. Over four years at the Bureau, according to Bihus.Info sources, he rose from an operational officer position to the entire deputy director role. However, journalists were concerned not only by Pekar’s such rapid career growth, but also by the improvement in his family’s financial situation and the scaling of his wife’s business, which occurred parallel to his career.

Anna Pekar, the wife of the SBI officer

For example, the income of Pekar’s wife Anna’s company began to grow rapidly after she appeared in the official’s declaration in 2017. At that time, Pekar held the position of head of the operational department of the tax inspection in a district of Kyiv. A few years after Pekar joined the SBI, the woman even launched production of her own line of skincare cosmetics, and in 2024 registered a company in Poland. With the start of wild business success, Anna Pekar went “shopping” on the real estate market despite no prior active interest in investments on her part. In 2017, the woman invested in an apartment in the elite A52 residential complex right in the capital’s center and in an expensive land plot near Kyiv. The next year, Pekar’s wife invested in a 160-square-meter office in the capital, and soon, in 2019, became the owner of a house in the expensive Zoloche cottage town. In total, over the first few years of living with Pekar, the woman “shopped” for at least 300 thousand dollars.

The Pekars’ house in the elite Zoloche cottage town

Not only Pekar’s wife can boast expensive real estate, but also his father and mother-in-law. In 2017, Nar’yan Pekar, the SBI officer’s father, bought commercial premises in Kharkiv for about 180 thousand dollars. Pekar’s mother-in-law in 2020 became the owner of 100 square meters of commercial space in the expensive capital residential complex “Einstein Concept House”. The real estate should have cost her about 5 million hryvnias. However, journalists could not find an explanation for the origin of the money for these expensive purchases by Pekar’s relatives. The man himself refused to comment on the sources of funds for the mentioned real estate.

The “Einstein Concept House” residential complex, where Pekar’s mother-in-law bought commercial space

In addition to the coincidences between Pekar’s career growth, expensive real estate purchases by his relatives, and the scaling of his wife’s business, journalists discovered a number of other circumstances that may explain why Pekar’s activities at the SBI remain so “secret”.

According to Bihus.Info sources, after Pekar joined the SBI, a supplier entered the Bureau that began signing “secret” contracts with the agency. Under these contracts, the company could have been paid about 50 million hryvnias. It is known that it specializes in cybersecurity. At the same time, according to journalists, before his appointment as deputy, Pekar headed the Main Operational-Technical Department – a direction that directly intersects with the company’s profile. It has also been established that its director, like Pekar himself, previously served in the tax police.

The SBI officer, in a response provided after the story aired to our request, stated that he maintains no off-duty or friendly relations with the director of this company. Also, according to Pekar, participation in procurement procedures is not part of his official duties.