The head of the Anti-Corruption Center, Vitaliy Shabunin, may be the owner of a house in the United States, registered under a fictitious person — a US citizen. The cost of the property is over UAH 1 million. UNIAN reports this with reference to a journalistic investigation by the project “They Steal”.
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“A source familiar with the materials of the criminal case against Shabunin reports that he may indeed be the actual owner of a house in Burlington, registered as a fictitious person — a US citizen. And Shabunin did not want to “shine” his estate in the declaration because then he would have to explain where he got the money to purchase it. The cost of such a house in the US, like Shabunin's, starts at $1 million or over 42 million hryvnias,” UNIAN reports.
As UNIAN notes, Shabunin hid in his declaration the fact that in 2023 his wife and children lived in a house in the United States.
“On March 11, 2023, Vitaly Shabunin asks his friend Rostislav Simikov, who lives in the USA, to send his wife Olena Shabunina decorations for the interior renovation of the anti-corruption activist's new home. The investigation helped establish the address of Shabunin's house: 41 Fontanny Boulevard, Burlington, New Jersey. At this address, there is a residential building with an area of 251 square meters, registered to a fictitious person with an American passport, Thomas Spadaro. Osinte analysis of the photographs confirmed the fact that the Shabunin family lives in this particular house,” UNIAN writes.
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UNIAN notes that, according to investigators, Shabunin allegedly hid American property because he did not have enough official income to legalize it – however, the funds that the anti-corruption activist operated with, according to reports from his organization, amount to millions of dollars.
“During the time his grant organization was active, more than $10 million in international aid passed through the hands of this 'anti-corruption activist'. How much of it ended up in Vitaliy's pockets is up to the investigation. And grantmakers will be interested to know how the money allocated to Vitaliy to fight corruption turned into several hundred square meters of a cozy estate in a small town in the north of Vermont,” UNIAN writes.
Information about the house, UNIAN notes, became known during the investigation of a high-profile criminal case against Shabunin for evading service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
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“Shabunin did not show up for duty, but he received a monthly allowance and “combat” allowance of over 50,000 hryvnias. He also actually appropriated a car that volunteers had given to the Ukrainian army. Instead of combat missions, Shabunin drove around Kyiv restaurants. At this time, his family was decorating a new estate in the States,” UNIAN writes.
As is known, on July 11, 2025, the State Bureau of Investigation announced suspicion against Shabunin under two articles – evasion of duty and fraudulent appropriation of property.
