“Money Only for the Armed Forces”: How Vyacheslav Lysenko, a Figure in the BEB Case, Defends His Reputational Blunders on Social Media
Vyacheslav Lysenko, a businessman and co-owner of Meest China, stated on his Facebook page that the investigation into his possible ties to an underground casino and a fraudulent call center — is nothing more than an attempt by “trash journalists” to make money by debunking fake news.
At the same time, Lysenko somehow forgot to mention that he recently officially lost his appeal against the publication UA.NEWS, where the judges denied the plaintiff’s request to remove the materials in question, recognizing the media outlet’s work as lawful.
An elite casino disguised as a business club
As a reminder, on April 30, 2024, BEB detectives conducted searches at addresses linked to Lysenko (specifically at 33B Degtyarivska St.). According to the investigation, an underground casino operated there under the guise of a “CEO club,” where the “elite” and lawmakers, among others, gambled, and a fraudulent call center operated, defrauding citizens of the EU and Ukraine. One of Lysenko’s subordinates was charged, while the businessman himself lost lawsuits against media outlets seeking to protect his reputation.
A great expert on China and geopolitics
Following this, Vyacheslav Lysenko launched a campaign to “whitewash” his reputation, which had been tarnished by possible ties to the organizers of underground casinos.
Interviews with him began appearing in the media, portraying him as a mentor and expert in various fields: from personal growth to geopolitics. According to one such article, Lysenko has been doing business in China for over 20 years and specializes there in a wide range of issues: from launching companies and negotiations to court cases and crises.
Charity as an alibi for call centers
The entrepreneur, obsessed with self-promotion, clearly cannot stop himself and resorts to public lamentation, claiming that even foreign partners (one, just one foreign partner) are surprised by the commissioned articles—why write such things, he asks, that they (the journalists) want. And he himself once heroically refused a mysterious Telegram channel’s offer to buy out a channel, declaring that he funds only the Armed Forces of Ukraine. However, the businessman did not explain to his audience the logic by which legitimate rulings of Ukrainian courts of several instances (including the Supreme Court) are equated with blackmail in messaging apps. And the question of whether the gambling tables found during the searches were used to fund the Armed Forces of Ukraine also remained unanswered. By the way, every exposed fraudulent call center always “works exclusively against Russians.” At least, that’s what they claim, and then come the mask shows, hands behind the back, and databases containing millions of contacts of residents of Ukraine and Europe.
The trick with clean records
Lysenko cites certificates from law enforcement agencies stating that there are no criminal cases personally against him as another argument in favor of his crystal-clear honesty. In business circles, this trick has been known for a long time: if, during BEB searches at the business center on Degtyarivska Street, an illegal casino is registered under front men (such as subordinate M. Slipukha, who has already been charged), then the building owner’s personal criminal record does indeed remain clean. But this hardly negates the very fact that law enforcement had been surveilling the property for eight months and uncovered a gambling hall “for the elite” there.
Brief remarks and “souvenir photos” with the BEB leadership
However, the secret behind Lysenko’s confidence in the information space seems to lie in his recent “working meetings.” The UA.NEWS editorial team sent an official inquiry to the Bureau of Economic Security, noting a private visit by BEB Director Oleksandr Tsivinsky and his deputy Pavlo Buzdygan to the CEO Club Ukraine business club, where they chatted amiably with Lysenko. The very same Lysenko who is currently under investigation by the EBS itself.
The Bureau responded to the journalists’ inquiry in the style of diplomatic etiquette: namely, that the visit was purely routine, aimed at establishing a “dialogue with the business community,” that no specific cases were discussed, and that they crossed paths with the person involved in the case only for the sake of “brief remarks and joint photos.”
A new compliance philosophy: warn first
However, the businessman himself described the results of this “discussion” in much greater detail on social media. Lysenko openly praised the new philosophy of the BEB head: not to “destroy” businesses, but in the event of violations, simply to “offer a chance to correct the situation and voluntarily pay a fine.” Following the meeting with the leadership of the law enforcement agency, the individual involved in the BEB proceedings reached the optimistic conclusion that “transparency and peace of mind” had now arrived for him.
Who is to blame? Journalists, of course
Lysenko concluded his Facebook post with a sweeping patriotic generalization. In his view, journalistic investigations do not harm him personally, but exclusively damage Ukraine’s image in the eyes of foreign investors. Therefore, the businessman called on law enforcement agencies—obviously the very same ones behind the “souvenir photo” with the BEB—to finally “get involved” and deal with those media outlets that are acting against their own country by writing about the gambling business during wartime.
It seems that the launch of a series of expert interviews on geopolitics and the courts in China, with which Lysenko has recently been trying to dominate Google search results, did not produce the expected whitewashing effect. Now the businessman has to personally explain to his followers why official court rulings against him are “schemes against the state,” while friendly chats with BEB leadership represent a new philosophy of Ukrainian compliance.
