Former Kyiv mayor fumes over Spanish media report that his son arrested in Catalonia on suspicion of money laundering

Chernovetskyi
was arrested with 10 other Ukrainians and Russians in Yubari, a Japanese
restaurant owned by the Armenian businessman Arman Mayilyan, according to the local news agency El Mundo.

“The local
press and police will bear responsibility for this whole-cloth lie to the
fullest extent of the Spanish laws,” Leonid Chernovetskyi told the Kyiv Post.

Anti-corruption
prosecutors did not reveal the names of the other suspects.

Stepan
Chernovetskyi is suspected of money laundering and being part of an organized
crime gang, reported El Mundo.

“That news
about my son was totally overblown by the press. Stepan was never involved in shady and
criminal schemes. He didn’t need it; he
has enough money on his bank accounts.
My son is a man of honor,” wrote Leonid Chernovetskyi, who is living in
Georgia, on a Facebook post on July 12.

Furthermore
the ex-mayor claimed that his son wasn’t arrested and is currently at his house
in Barcelona and is being questioned by the local police about “a man he might
know,” wrote Chernovetskyi.

However, later Spanish media El Punt Avui and Diari de
Girona published several photos of the arrest of a man who looks like Stepan
Chernovetskyi in S’Agaró, the town in Catalonia Province of Spain.

The
anti-corruption prosecutor’s office of Catalonia claimed that all 11 suspects
are connected to Ukrainian mafia in Barcelona and were involved in scheme of
laundering at least 10 million euro. The money was transferred through fake
business companies registered in Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands.

Leonid
Chernovetskyi is confident that the local press will apologize to his son. He
claimed that “Russian mafia” is a popular topic among Spanish media. He wrote
that he already filed a demand to El Español news agency to remove the
information.

“If they
don’t do it, I will file a lawsuit with the demand to pay a million dollars for
emotional distress and tarnished reputation. I will use the money for charity
in Georgia and Ukraine,” Chernovetskyi wrote.

The
ex-mayor transferred his businesses to his son last year.

Stepan
Chernovetskyi, 38, is a former Pravex Bank CEO. It was owned by
his father Leonid Chernovetskyi until 2012.

According
to the National Bank of Ukraine database of beneficial owners, Pravex Bank has been owned by the Intesa Sanpaolo Italian banking group since 2013.

Kyiv Post staff
writer Veronika Melkozerova can be reached at melkozerova@kyivpost.com