The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), based on the results of a lifestyle monitoring conducted by the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), filed a lawsuit with the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) to declare the assets of a member and secretary of a city council in Cherkasy region unjustified and to recover them for the state.
During the lifestyle monitoring, the NACP established that the official actually used two premium cars – a 2019 BMW X7 and a 2021 Mercedes-Benz S 400. At the same time, the ownership rights to the vehicles were registered to his driver.
The collected materials show that despite the formal registration of the cars under another person, the official had been using them since the time of purchase. This is confirmed, in particular, by powers of attorney issued in his name granting the right to dispose of the vehicles, usage data, the installation of custom license plates with a character combination characteristic of the official's family, as well as traffic violation fines, bank transactions along the vehicles' travel routes, and video footage from a journalistic investigation by the NGO "Cherkasy Information Agency "18000"".
In addition, the analysis revealed signs of artificially understated vehicle values in the purchase and sale agreements: the BMW X7 was acquired for UAH 500,000, and the Mercedes-Benz S 400 for UAH 50,000, while their market value exceeded UAH 7.4 million.
An analysis of the income and asset status of the official, his family members, and the nominal owner showed a lack of sufficient legal income to acquire such assets.
In light of the above, the prosecutor filed a lawsuit requesting the court to declare the assets unjustified and to recover their value for the state.
