The growing popularity and capabilities of digital assets create new challenges in the field of public officials' asset declarations. After all, dishonest officials, trying to come up with new ways to conceal their dubious wealth, often reflect false information in the declaration about cryptocurrencies - their availability, date of acquisition, quantity and value of digital assets. Or they do not indicate that they own them at all, since they do not have confirmation of the legitimacy of the sources of funds for their acquisition.
This approach to declaration is not only irresponsible, but also completely ineffective. The technical and analytical tools available to the The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) during full inspections make it possible to verify the presence of cryptocurrency or to find out whether it really belongs to the person indicated in the declaration. The NACP works closely with the Cyber Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine on this issue.
Facts of unreliable declaration of cryptocurrency have already been revealed during full audits of declarations.
In particular, the deputy head of the Regional Service Center of the Main Service Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Mykolaiv region declared in his 2021 declaration the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, the value of which in the "hryvnia" equivalent at the end of the reporting period amounted to UAH 100 million, which he did not confirm during a full inspection. The declaration for 2022 revealed false information about the availability of cryptocurrency worth more than UAH 48 million. The declarant explained the inability to confirm the presence of a part of the cryptocurrency by the theft of a cold crypto wallet and the key to it, and as for the other part of the asset, the official provided documents that did not allow to confirm the veracity of the declared information.
In the 2022 declaration of an employee of the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office, the NACP found false information worth more than UAH 23 million. In relation to cryptocurrencies alone, the official provided false information worth UAH 22.5 million, including the presence, quantity, and value of his numerous digital assets, and forgot to mention some of them altogether. He explained that part of the cryptocurrency was donated to him by a stock exchange that was operating in test mode and was not connected to the blockchain, and that the price of the cryptocurrency was an advertising campaign by the stock exchange to attract customers, not the real price.
A deputy of Vinnytsia City Council indicated in his 2021 declaration that his family member owned cryptocurrency, namely Bitcoin in the amount of 20 tokens worth more than UAH 2 million and DOT worth almost UAH 7.5 million, which he could not confirm during a full inspection. At the same time, a member of the declarant's family provided a screenshot that does not allow establishing the veracity of the information provided in the declaration, and with regard to Bitcoin, he also noted that access to the asset on the specified exchange has been lost. Based on the results of the full audit, it was found that the declaration contained false information totaling UAH 12 million.
Based on the NACP substantiated conclusions, the competent authorities initiated criminal proceedings on the grounds of an offense under Part 2 of Article 366-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Disclaimer. In accordance with part one of Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person shall be presumed innocent of committing a crime and shall not be subjected to criminal punishment until his or her guilt is proved by law and established by a court verdict of guilty.
