The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has found signs of unjustified assets worth over UAH 5.6 million and false information worth over UAH 83 million in the declaration of the head of the department of the Main Department of the State Migration Service of Ukraine in Odesa region.
The materials of the full audit of his declaration in terms of identifying signs of unjustified assets were sent to the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office to initiate the recovery of a premium car Mercedes-Benz G 400 D made in 2023 worth UAH 5.6 million, registered in the name of the official's mother.
In addition, the audit found that the official failed to indicate in his declaration information about a residential building in the center of Odesa. The house with a total area of 200.5 square meters and an estimated value of more than UAH 7 million is registered in the name of the mother of the declarant's minor children.
In addition to the car, the official failed to declare other assets registered in his mother's name, in respect of which he has the decisive right of disposal: an office building with a total area of 195.8 sq.m., a recreation center (apartments) with a total area of 94.9 sq.m., shop premises and land plots in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi and Zatoka, Odesa region, the value of which at the date of acquisition (2014-2017) amounted to about UAH 800 thousand.
The National Agency also questioned whether the official's wife owned 37 units of Bitcoin cryptocurrency worth more than UAH 57.7 million and cash in the amount of EUR 100 thousand and USD 200 thousand. USD.
After reviewing the NACP's substantiated conclusion regarding the signs of false information in the declaration, the State Bureau of Investigation initiated criminal proceedings under Part 1 of Article 366-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Note: in accordance with part one of Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and shall not be subjected to criminal punishment until his or her guilt is proved in accordance with the law and established by a court verdict of guilty.
As a reminder, you can follow the progress and results of full verification of public officials' declarations here.
In October, NACP completed 88 full audits of declarations selected under the new risk-based approach. Inaccurate information was found in 48 declarations (55% of the completed ones) for UAH 663.8 million, signs of unreasonable assets for more than UAH 7 million and illicit enrichment for UAH 14.3 million.
In the first 10 months of 2024, NACP launched 860 full audits, of which 542 were completed, revealing inaccurate information, signs of illicit enrichment or unjustified assets, as well as violations of conflicts of interest in 280 declarations or 52% of the completed audits, i.e. in every second declaration that was audited. For comparison, in the first 10 months of 2021, such violations were found in 20% of the completed full audits of declarations.
Over 10 months, signs of inaccurate information worth UAH 3.15 billion, signs of unreasonable assets worth more than UAH 42 million, and signs of illicit enrichment worth UAH 160.6 million were identified.
