An investigation by RFE/RL has uncovered that family members of a Ukrainian legislator from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's Servant of the People party has property in Dubai worth more than $1 million -- well beyond what they could have likely afforded on their official incomes.
The revelation follows earlier findings by RFE/RL of secret Dubai property held by family members of 10 senior current and former Ukrainian officials.
The latest findings concern the daughter and nephew of Hennadiy Kasai, who sits on the Defense Committee in the Ukrainian parliament.
The information comes from a leak from various state registers in the United Arab Emirates. This was obtained and verified by Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, in cooperation with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
According to these records, the Kasai family owns four apartments in premium residential complexes that they purchased between 2022 and 2023.
In April 2022, Polina Kasai, then 22 years old, acquired a two-bedroom flat in the Dubai Gate 2 residential complex for $310,000.
The same month, 25-year-old Oleksandr Kasai purchased an apartment in the Studio One residential complex for $202,500. He added two further properties for almost $330,000 in August 2022 and $240,000 in February 2023.
According to her profile on a freelance-services website, Polina Kasai earned between $6 and $40 per project as a content manager in 2019. According to her Facebook page, she is now a senior content manager for the Ukrainian-Israeli medical volunteer mission FRIDA Ukraine.
From sources with access to the data of the register of personal income, Schemes learned that, over the past 3 1/2 years, Polina Kasai's official earnings were about $70,000.
When approached for comment, Polina Kasai hung up after being asked about her Dubai real estate.
Lawmaker Hennadiy Kasai and his wife, according to his official asset declaration, earned about $60,000 over the last three years, with most of their earnings being from his legislator's salary.
Their nephew, Oleksandr, also did not respond to our request for comment about the origin of the funds.
He was a professional handball player, with business interests in two Ukrainian companies: 7 percent in a Ukrainian company called MS AVIA-GRADE and 10 percent in a loss-making marketing agency called Borscht. None of this would realistically have provided an income capable of financing his property purchases.
Oleksandr also had a business interest in Turkey, where he co-owned a company called Vector Avia, which received a $27 million contract from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry for military uniforms.
According to the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), which conducted a criminal investigation into the matter, the clothing Vector Avia shipped to Ukraine was of inadequate quality and cost the ministry three times the price listed in Turkish customs declarations.
Law enforcement issued notices of suspicion to two Defense Ministry officials, saying they had conspired with each other and Vector Avia to misappropriate $27 million in public funds. However, only one of Vector Avia's co-owners was charged and he is not the lawmaker's nephew.
Oleksandr Kasai exited the company before charges were brought.
Schemes asked the SBU to explain why, of two people co-owning Vector Avia at the time of the deal, they only charged one: Roman Pletnev, also a Ukrainian citizen.
The SBU did not answer this question.
Pletnev fled Ukraine to Turkey in 2022. His former business partner and the lawmaker's nephew Oleksandr Kasai also seems to have left Ukraine.
According to the information Schemes obtained from sources with access to border-crossing data, Oleksandr Kasai left Ukraine in May 2023 and hasn't returned. With some exceptions, Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 are banned from leaving Ukraine due to Russia's full-scale invasion.
In a written response to journalists' questions, Hennadiy Kasai said his daughter and nephew are adults who are financially independent and live separately.
He couldn't explain the origin of the $1 million spent on Dubai real estate. He also denied any involvement in his nephew's company's military procurement contract.
