Viktor Pshonka

Early life and education Viktor Pshonka was born on 6 February 1954 in Serhiivka, Slovyansk District of Donetsk Oblast. After graduating from high school he was called up for military service in the Soviet Army. Having discharged from army, he got a job at one of the enterprises in Donetsk Oblast. at the end of 2006.

General Prosecutor of Ukraine Since his appointment to office, Viktor Pshonka has laid emphasis in his activity on bringing Ukrainian prosecution service in line with European standards. Speaking on the Ukrainian TV channel Inter four days after his appointment, Pshonka called himself "a member of President Viktor Yanukovych's team".

In this regard, V. Pshonka takes active part in consultations and discussions on the issues of improving of the work of prosecution service with experts and representatives of European and international organizations, in particular, the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Venice Commission, etc., as well as exchange of experience with law enforcement authorities of other states.

In accordance with the new Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine CPC, which entered into force in 2012, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine led by Pshonka introduced the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations (computerized system, where all complaints and applications regarding criminal offences in Ukraine are registered), which is used by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies.

In November 2012, the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics for employees of the prosecution service was adopted by all-Ukrainian Conference of Members of prosecuting agencies.

On 3 March 2012, another innovation during Pshonka's tenure was establishment of the Dnipro Ecological Prosecutor's Office, the main task of which is to oversee compliance with environmental laws in respect of drainage basin of the Dnieper River within the territory of Ukraine.

In 2012, Pshonka as the Prosecutor General of Ukraine began investigating Burisma Holdings owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, over allegations of money laundering, tax evasion, and corruption during 2010-2012.

Discovery of Ukraine's Watergate papers Together, Viktor Pshonka, Viktor Yanukovych, and Vitaly Zakharchenko became guests on the 11th floor of the Hotel Ukraina in Moscow on 25 February 2014. On 21 February 2014, Yanukovych traveled by helicopter to Kharkiv and then to Donetsk but was denied permission to takeoff from Donetsk, so, he drove to Crimea and then left Crimea for Russia on a Russia government boat.

Upon Pshonka's departure, the luxurious Pshonka mansion near Kyiv at Gorenichi, Kyiv-Svyatoshinsky district was searched and numerous files were discovered. Revealed on 31 May 2016 by Serhiy Anatoliyovich Leshchenko , the secret bookkeeping of Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions' Black Ledger or Barn Book which implicated numerous persons to improper payments including Paul Manafort for which the book included the handwritten records of 22 payments over five years to Manafort from pro Kremlin and pro Putin sources, nine of which had been signed by Vitaly Anatolyevich Kalyuzhny who was the Verkhovna Rada's foreign relations committee chairman. On 17 August 2016, Donald Trump removed Paul Manafort as Trump's campaign chairman following Trump's first national security briefing directly because of the records in the secret ledger. In September 2016, Leshchenko referred to these papers as Ukraine's Watergate.

Criminal prosecution On 22 February 2014, as a part of the Euromaidan Revolution, the Verkhovna Rada ousted Pshonka in a no-confidence vote.

Early March 2014, the EU froze Pshonka's accounts.

Controversies Murder of Ihor Aleksandrov Ihor Oleksandrovych Aleksandrov who was an investigative reporter and presenter for the independent television station TOR TV in Sloviansk was murdered in 2001 while producing a program for the series "Bez Retushi" (Without Touching Up) which was exposing links between politicians, law enforcement, and organized crime in Kramatorsk; Pshonka was one of two men Aleksandrov had identified as godfathering the Kramatorsk underworld. During the search for the missing files, the Head of the Special Investigations Division of the General Investigation Department of the GPU, Serhiy Viktorovych Horbatyuk , believed that Pshonka had ordered those files and many others to be transferred to Crimea. On 10 April 2015, Mustafa Nayyem stated that he was with members of the Right Sector when they entered Pshonka's mansion and that the Right Sector recovered numerous GPU files from Pshonka's mansion including some items from under the tiles in the Pshonka mansion's sauna. On 15 April 2015, Nayyem recovered missing GPU files about Yulia Tymoshenko in Pechersk's regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Kyiv. The Tymoshenko files were sent to Pechersk after the Right Sector left the Dnipro Hotel. He was elected into parliament.

After his removal as General Prosecutor of Ukraine media reported in late February 2014 that photos of Pshonka's mansion were "astonishing by their luxury".

When Pshonka and his son Artyom appealed the EU accounts freeze in late May 2014, they both had Russian citizenship, although it was unclear since when. The last time Pshonka appeared in public was during a joint press conference with former President Viktor Yanukovych and former Ukrainian Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko on 13 April 2014 in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

In the fall of 2014, Pshonka moved his family's jewelry businesses, Gold Standard Jewelry Factory LLC and others, from Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, to Sebastopol in Russian annexed Crimea. Russia has illegally occupied Crimea since the Russian invasion of Ukraine beginning March 2014. Pshonka dominated the gold jewelry industry in Kramatorsk which was the third largest production center in Ukraine behind only Kyiv and Kharkiv in production. and Canada since 5 March 2014.

For his roles in destabilizing Ukraine, his son, Artem or Artyom, has been under sanctions since early March 2014 by the European Union, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and Norway;

Awards In view of special accomplishments in strengthening of the due course of law in Ukraine, V. Pshonka was awarded a rank of State Counselor of Justice of Ukraine, Honored Jurist of Ukraine and Third Class Order of Merit by the Decrees of the President of Ukraine.

In 2000, he was named Jurist of the Year in the nomination among prosecutors.

In 2002, he was awarded the Certificate of Honor of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

Viktor Pshonka was awarded lapel badges of the "Honorable Member of Prosecution Service of Ukraine”, “Statehood. Fairness. Honesty” of 2nd Degree.

He also received “Acknowledgement of Honest Service in Prosecution Service of Ukraine” of 1st Degree, as well as awards from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.