MP Suto Mamoyan is scrubbing the internet of mentions of family business interests, elite assets, and the scandalous development of Poshtova Square

As the Telegram channel «Ukrainsky Obozrevatel» recently reported, Mamoyan Suto Choloyovych, a deputy from OPFL, will soon attempt to push through «his» person for the leadership of the SSU in Zakarpattia region. 

This raises the question: who exactly is Suto Mamoyan, and how does he have the ability to influence appointments of heads of the Security Service of Ukraine in key regions of the country so dramatically? After all, there are four and a half hundred people’s deputies in Ukraine, but far from all of them have enough weight to influence the SSU. And he is a deputy from the opposition. Let’s try to figure this out.

Mamoyan Suto was born in 1981. By nationality, he is a Yezidi (this detail is only to understand why he has such a name and should in no way be interpreted otherwise). People’s Deputy of Ukraine from OPFL, he ran at number 33 on the party list. In 2015, he was a deputy of the Poltava Regional Council from the «Party of Ordinary People» of Serhiy Kaplin. He lives in the Makariv district of Kyiv region. Education: secondary. That is, school and that’s it. But this did not prevent Suto from becoming a civil servant of the first rank, which people’s deputies are. However, that was the people’s choice. Moreover, having a university diploma in modern Ukraine only means one thing: the person has money. So it is still unknown which is better: to honestly say that one did not study at an institute, or to present a bought diploma. And the lack of higher education, against the background of the rest of Mamoyan’s «exploits,» is a mere trifle.

Before moving on to describing these exploits, let us recall that the deputy’s father, Mamoyan Cholo Ashoyovych, is a businessman and founder of several food companies. His younger brother, Serhiy Mamoyan, was a deputy of the Poltava Regional Council from the Social Democratic Party of the previous convocation. Last year, in 2020, he became a deputy of the Kyiv City Council from OPFL. 

Another relative of the deputy, Rustam Sutko (he took this surname instead of the family «Mamoyan»), oversees the activities of the State Bureau of Investigations at the Prosecutor General’s Office. Rustam’s wife, Natalia, was directly connected with Rinat Akhmetov, working in his companies, namely LLC «Stadion Shakhtar» and «Donbas Arena». Natalia’s biological father, Volodymyr Kovalevskyi, held the position of head of the National Agency for Preparation for Euro 2012. 

Now a bit about the «exploits» of the then-not-yet people’s deputy. Mamoyan Suto has a criminal case in his biography. And while most of his colleagues have been involved in purely economic crimes, Mamoyan is a simple man: in 2007, the police detained him for forcing, together with an accomplice, a FC «Dynamo» instructor into his «Mercedes» by force, beating him and demanding one thousand dollars. The case under articles «Extortion», «Robbery» and «Abduction of Documents» lingered in the investigation and courts until 2013, when it suddenly «turned out» that the friends had not beaten anyone but had stood up for an unknown girl to whom a bad person from «Dynamo» had sold an old mobile phone disguised as a new one. And a relative in the Prosecutor General’s Office only helped establish the «real» circumstances of the case.

In addition, in 2009, another criminal case was opened against Mamoyan Suto for an accident in which a person died. According to the case materials, on August 21, 2008, Suto Mamoyan, driving along the highway at a speed of 139 km/h, crashed into a minibus, as a result of which the minibus driver died from his injuries. But here too the court showed humanity: the culprit of the accident, whom Mamoyan was recognized as, was given a punishment not involving imprisonment. He got off with a two-year probationary period.

All this did not prevent the OPFL congress from including Mamoyan Suto on its electoral list, and the voters from giving this list so many votes that Mamoyan received a deputy mandate. And almost immediately he became the subject of a new scandal. Whether it was his education that let him down, or whether the transparency of his brain and lack of understanding that he had become a public figure and this should be taken into account at least a little played a cruel joke — it is unknown. But People’s Deputy Mamoyan, like all other civil servants, submitted a declaration of his income. And he entered a small fleet of three cars there: two Toyota Land Cruiser 200 and a Mercedes Benz G63. The purchase of new prestigious cars by newly elected servants of the people no longer surprises anyone.

But Suto managed to surprise even experienced colleagues and journalists. Judging by his declaration, he bought the Land Cruiser at the price of battered «Tavria» cars — each cost him 20,000 (Twenty thousand) hryvnias. That is, 800 dollars. The Mercedes somehow cost much more — 3,900,000 hryvnias. 

To understand the real value of a Toyota Land Cruiser, no special effort is needed — just go to «AUTO.RIA», where even a burned-out Land Cruiser costs half a million. Not to mention cars from a year ago without damage. 

In addition, on June 27, 2019, Suto Mamoyan became the owner of two apartments in the capital in the residential complex «Zarichnyi» on the banks of the Dnipro with an area of 124.7 and 125.1 square meters. Which, according to the declaration, he bought for 500,000 hryvnias each. Although the market price (and it is also by no means a secret) for such objects is 1,200 dollars per square meter. It is not difficult to calculate how much the people’s deputy cheated the state if you multiply the square footage of the apartments by the real value. 

 Not just obvious, but brazen lies in the declaration became the basis for the fact that in July last year NABU opened a pre-trial investigation against Mamoyan Suto in a criminal case on entering knowingly false data into the declaration. But almost a year has passed, and the matter, as you understand, is still there.

And therefore, of course, it is not surprising that Mamoyan was among those deputies who sent an appeal to the Constitutional Court to recognize criminal liability for lying in declarations as unconstitutional.

Another interesting story is connected with Mamoyan Suto’s cars — it was in one of them in June 2020 that a person who was stalking former Minister of Health Ulyana Suprun was driving. 

«This evening, an unknown person near my house tried in an extremely brazen manner to photograph me, poking a phone in my face. He behaved very insolently, as if he wanted to scare me,» Suprun said then and filed a statement with the police. What happened to him, you can guess for yourself. We are talking about the statement, of course, and not about the person.

Suto also distinguished himself in the capital’s nightlife. During quarantine, when ordinary mortals were being caught by police on beaches and mercilessly fined for not wearing masks in the forest, Mamoyan was having fun together with his colleagues in the company of cheerful girls and thief in law Nodar Rustavskyi (Nodar Asoyan) at the club «Queen»: 

According to media reports, Nodar Rustavskyi’s peaceful life is ensured precisely by Suto Mamoyan. The deputy allegedly pays 500 thousand dollars a month to the top leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs so that law enforcement officers do not notice the well-known thief in law on the territory of Ukraine.

Which, you must agree, is impressive.

Especially against the background of the people’s deputy’s declaration, where he indicated that he earned 1,186,485 hryvnias in 2019, that is, approximately 44 thousand dollars. Or payment for eleven days of peaceful life for his authoritative friend. By the way, a million hryvnias from this «earnings» was «given» to him by his mother, Mamoyan Gyavaz, a pensioner. Perhaps savings from previous years are helping out — Mamoyan Suto declared 2,300,000 dollars, 2,600,000 hryvnias and 340,000 euros.

And, if we are talking again about the relatives of the people’s deputy, it is worth mentioning that his father, Cholo, is involved in the scandal surrounding the development of Poshtova Square. 

He owns two «Kompot» cafes on this square and he (together with his entire family) was a participant in the attempt to build a shopping and entertainment center on this site, which would have destroyed all unique archaeological finds. True, in May 2019, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine granted Poshtova Square the status of a national archaeological monument, which somewhat dampened the developers’ appetites. But the story of the construction of the shopping center is by no means over — criminal proceeding No. 12015100120001272 regarding the attempt to destroy the monument, which was being conducted by the prosecutor’s office of the Podilskyi district and in which the surname Mamoyan repeatedly appeared, was requested for its proceedings by the Prosecutor General’s Office. Where, as you remember, Rustam Sutko works. The one who renounced the family surname Mamoyan and is the brother of Suto. And the son of Cholo. And after Suto became a people’s deputy, the family’s positions strengthened very significantly. So we are waiting for the continuation of the development story.

As we are also waiting for the declaration of People’s Deputy Suto Mamoyan for 2020, the deadline for which expires in a few days. It will be interesting to see which car and which apartment he bought last year. And how much they cost him this time.