The house gifted 14 years ago to the daughter of the 'Novy Zrok' founder was confiscated in her father's case
The court declared Oleg Kauryhin's 2011 deed of gift to his daughter invalid.
The founder of 'Novy Zrok,' Oleg Kauryhin, was tried in absentia in Belarus, including on politically motivated charges. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 400 thousand rubles, and it was also decided to recover almost 4 million rubles for the state. Kauryhin himself commented that he didn't understand what money was being referred to, as he had neither money nor property in Belarus. Later, the businessman realized how the authorities wanted to get this money: they seized a house from his daughter from his first marriage. Her father had gifted her this property back in 2011, but the court declared the transaction invalid. 'Zerkalo' reports the details.
Oleg Kauryhin built the house in the village of Tarasava near Minsk in 2010. He says he didn't specifically choose the location there.
— I simply had a friend whom I immensely respected, now deceased, Yauhen Shyhalau, the founder of the 'Zhdanovichy' company. And he wanted to have someone nearby with whom he could communicate, — the businessman recounted. — I wasn't looking for or even thinking about my own house in principle — I had an apartment in Minsk. So, he sold me a plot in Tarasava with a foundation very cheaply. I built a house for myself quite quickly, in a year and a half. And so I found myself among neighbors I hadn't chosen: on one side of the house lives Viktar Sheiman, on the other — Alena Skrypel, who owns the 'Helena and Valery' duty-free shop. But the settlement itself is known overall.
Kauryhin says that after building the house, he practically didn't live in it. He and his wife Natallia divorced, and in 2011, the businessman was already preparing to move to Lithuania permanently. He sold his car, closed his affairs, received a PP-series passport, and in July 2011 decided to gift the house to his daughter Zlata.
The girl was four years old at the time.
— At that time, I didn't know where my ex-wife and daughter would live, and I also wanted to secure my child's future, — Kauryhin explains. — We went to a notary, and I formalized the deed of gift.
Having closed his affairs in Belarus, the man left for Lithuania. Five years later, Zlata and her mother rented out the property and moved to Spain. Aleh says his daughter had plans to return to Belarus and enroll in a university in Minsk. She planned to live in that very house.
11 years passed. In February 2023, security forces raided the 'Novy Zrok' chain of medical centers. The Investigative Committee seized the company's property. At the same time, it also seized Kauryhin's daughter's house, even though Zlata had no involvement in the criminal case.
In November 2024, the court sentenced Oleg Kauryhin in absentia to 12 years in prison. Subsequently, the Prosecutor General's Office filed a civil lawsuit to recover damages he allegedly inflicted on the state. As a result, the debt grew to 3.82 million rubles.
The Minsk District Court did not grant the lawsuit to lift the seizure of Kauryhin's daughter's house. Moreover, it declared the gift agreement itself invalid. Prosecutor Natallia Matsieika's position was that the agreement was concluded to avoid property seizure, as Kauryhin allegedly was already planning 'criminal activities' back then.
Judge Heorhi Krasutski agreed with these arguments and declared the 2011 deed of gift null and void. Essentially, the rights to the plot and the house reverted to Oleg Kauryhin, and now the property can be forcibly sold. The founder of 'Novy Zrok' himself calls this absurd:
— Allegedly, I was planning some criminal activity in 2023 back in 2011? Moriarty would be nervously smoking in the corner. The accusations are so absurd, so dumb. I understand that someone had an eye on the house, which is why the court made such a decision. It's purely political. And whoever tries to buy this house should understand that, in essence, it's stolen.