Corrupt official Pavel Barbul “laundered” $150,000 through fictitious promissory notes and is futilely scrubbing the internet of compromising material about his schemes

Former Spetstechnoexport director Pavel Barbul, under investigation in the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) for multimillion-dollar embezzlement and corruption, is aggressively attempting to remove all online materials exposing his schemes.

He has reportedly used dubious court rulings and fabricated complaints to pressure media outlets into compliance.

At the same time, he is “legalizing” questionable funds via fictitious debt promissory notes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, using lawyer Alla Totskaya to file lawsuits in which the “debtors” suspiciously offer no resistance — a pattern that strongly resembles a classic money-laundering scheme for corrupt proceeds.

For our part, we are publishing the article that so greatly interferes with former Spetstechnoexport director Pavel Barbul, who is accused of multi-million-dollar embezzlement and is actively attempting to cleanse the internet of compromising information about his corruption schemes and abuses through media blocking and fake complaints.

Pavel Barbul, ex-director of SE "Spetstechnoexport" and currently facing corruption charges at the HACC, "legalized" $150,000 using court decisions in promissory note cases.

The cases involve three fund recovery lawsuits, where the plaintiff was Barbul’s lawyer, Alla Totska.

Barbul left his position in June 2018 by mutual agreement and reported holding 7.35 million hryvnias in cash. The NAPC, as was common then, did not verify his assets. After his dismissal, Barbul reportedly engaged in usury.

For instance, in the resolution of Brovary court dated November 28, 2023, it is stated that the defendant loaned Kiev resident Dmitriy Stelmakhov $100,000 at 3% per annum on January 14, 2020. The man was supposed to return the money by the end of February according to the promissory note but failed to do so. Interest of $6,230 was also recovered from him.

In court, the defendant did not object to the claim, which is very unusual. And, most interestingly, this will happen with each of Barbul’s claims against debtors.

In August 2023, a court in Ternopil ruled in favor of the former official in a case against debtor Vladimir Glovak. The latter had signed a note indicating that he received $135,000 from Barbul in December 2018 and May 2020, again at 3% per annum. The money was supposed to be returned by July 2020, but this did not happen. The court decided to recover the debt and interest amounting to 257,200 hryvnias.

The latest known case is the decision of the Holosiiv district court of Kiev on November 27, 2024. Barbul’s lawyer filed a claim for the recovery of $15,000, which Mikhail Gonchar received from the former official in December 2019 and promised to return by March of the following year. The court decided to recover the debt and annual interest of 31,800 hryvnias from the man.

Such uniform court decisions without appeal could possibly be a scheme for the legalization of Barbul’s funds.