{"id":29436,"date":"2023-02-01T21:17:41","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T21:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=29436"},"modified":"2023-02-01T21:17:43","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T21:17:43","slug":"the-head-of-the-kyiv-tax-authority-is-charged-with-multimillion-dollar-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/02\/01\/the-head-of-the-kyiv-tax-authority-is-charged-with-multimillion-dollar-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"The head of the Kyiv tax authority is charged with multimillion dollar fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Volodymyr Zelenskiy\u2019s crackdown on corruption has continued as the woman leading the Kyiv tax authority was accused of massive fraud after a raid of one of her four homes, and a series of national officials were forced from office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The residence of the businessman Igor Kolomoisky, a former political ally of Ukraine\u2019s president, was also raided as part of an investigation into the suspected evasion of customs duties linked to the Ukrainian oil producer Ukrnafta and refiner Ukrtatnafta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The media empire owned by Kolomoisky, who is already under US sanctions for his alleged involvement in \u201csignificant corruption\u201d, helped popularise Zelenskiy as an entertainer and then supported his political career. Kolomoisky has denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the country\u2019s SBU security service, said \u201cdozens\u201d of actions had taken place on Wednesday, targeting what he described as corrupt officials, Russian agents and those undermining the nation\u2019s security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t plan to stop,\u201d he said in a statement on Telegram. \u201cEvery criminal who has the audacity to harm Ukraine, especially under war conditions, must understand clearly that we will put him in handcuffs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The developments came as Ukraine\u2019s president prepared for an EU summit on Friday in Kyiv to discuss the country\u2019s potential accession to the bloc of 27 member states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a leaked draft statement, the EU will encourage Ukraine to meet the European Commission\u2019s demands \u2013 which include dealing with corruption \u2013 to allow membership negotiations to start. \u201cThe EU will decide on further steps once all conditions specified in the Commission\u2019s opinion are fully met,\u201d the bloc is expected to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of Ukrainian officials had been forced to resign last week amid allegations of corruption as Zelenskiy pledged that practices that were widespread before the war in Ukraine would not be allowed to continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crackdown was in full swing on Wednesday. Ukraine\u2019s state bureau of investigation (SBI) said in a statement that the acting head of Kyiv\u2019s tax inspectorate, who was not named, had abused her \u201cpower and official position\u201d along with other members of the authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Investigators<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Investigators search the woman\u2019s home. Photograph: Ukrainian state bureau of investigation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a raid on the woman\u2019s home, investigators found $158,000 (about \u00a3128,000), 530,000 Ukrainian hrynvia (\u00a311,000), \u20ac2,200 (\u00a31,900) in cash, and an array of expensive jewellery, designer-branded clothing and luxury gold watches. The SBI published photographs of what it described as the haul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigators claimed the woman\u2019s lifestyle did not fit her declared income as head of the capital\u2019s main tax office. She is said to own three flats in the city with a total value of $1m (\u00a3811,640), a house near Kyiv worth about $200,000 and two cars together worth about $150,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her driver was also found to have a $100,000 car registered in his name, although the man\u2019s \u201cincome in recent years was no more than $8,000\u201d, the SBI claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An image released by the SBI of what it said was the haul of cash seized. Photograph: Ukrainian state bureau of investigation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Guardian was unable to contact the official. Kyiv\u2019s tax office did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigators allege that the woman had used her position to reduce the tax bills of some individuals and companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SBI said in a statement: \u201cThe total amount of established unsubstantiated assets of the official is about $1.4m\u201d (\u00a31.1m).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Watches<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Watches which the SBI says were found at the woman\u2019s home. Photograph: Ukrainian state bureau of investigation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also emerged that the acting heads of the national customs and tax services had been fired. Last month a series of alleged corruption schemes were unravelled in regional customs offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelenskiy had said he would make changes after last week\u2019s arrest and dismissal of Vasyl Lozinskyi, an infrastructure minister, in relation to accusations of inflating the price of winter equipment, including generators, and allegedly siphoning off $400,000. About $38,000 in cash was reportedly found in his office. He has not commented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deputy defence minister, Vyacheslav Shapovalov, had also \u201casked to be fired\u201d after reports that soldiers\u2019 rations were being bought for inflated prices, raising concerns of potential kickbacks. He has denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Transparency International\u2019s 2021 index, Ukraine is the second most corrupt country in Europe behind Russia. With Ukraine taking its first steps on what could be a long path to EU accession, the government is under pressure to show that it has cleaned up its act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelenskiy is expected to take part in a summit in Kyiv with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and her European Council counterpart, Charles Michel, on Friday to discuss progress. It is not yet known whether EU leaders will also attend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine\u2019s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has said he hopes the country will become an EU member state within two years. The EU granted Ukraine formal candidate status in record time but there is no prospect of it joining the bloc on such an accelerated timetable. Turkey has had candidate status since 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the lukewarm language of the draft EU statement, there was some positive news on Wednesday as US auditors who met senior Ukrainian ministers this week said they had found no evidence of the misuse of US financial aid to Ukraine. A number of senior Republicans have raised concerns about potential fraud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Volodymyr Zelenskiy\u2019s crackdown on corruption has continued as the woman leading the Kyiv tax authority was accused of massive fraud after a raid of one of her four homes, and a series of national officials were forced from office. The residence of the businessman Igor Kolomoisky, a former political ally of Ukraine\u2019s president, was also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":29437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11261,6850,11264,6975,1451,11583,13175,5520,7331,9784,9331,1384,11996,12950,6412,5195,7583,159,6621,9505,6564,3182,11638,6085,5918,2264,13130,10598,8995,10954,10197,9474,5342,9765,6864,8000,5441,11973,3805,12103,10390,3174,11774,6575,8297,3457,5217,5713,5655,12778,5618,1502,6258,2570,5180,6885,5555,9475,10976,6238,6348,6886,10044,5251,3954,8964,5273,594,6874],"class_list":["post-29436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-accused","tag-aid","tag-allegations","tag-arrest","tag-businessman","tag-capital","tag-car","tag-cars","tag-cash","tag-charged","tag-city","tag-corruption","tag-crackdown","tag-customs","tag-dismissal","tag-dollar","tag-driver","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-commission","tag-european-council","tag-forced","tag-fraud","tag-gold","tag-government","tag-handcuffs","tag-homes","tag-infrastructure","tag-international","tag-investigation","tag-kolomoisky","tag-kyiv","tag-leaked","tag-ministers","tag-negotiations","tag-oil","tag-one","tag-president","tag-price","tag-prices","tag-prime-minister","tag-raid","tag-republicans","tag-resign","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-sanctions","tag-security","tag-seized","tag-soldiers","tag-tax","tag-transparency","tag-turkey","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraines-president","tag-ukrainian","tag-ukrtatnafta","tag-ursula","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-us","tag-volodymyr-zelenskiy","tag-von-der-leyen","tag-war","tag-will","tag-winter","tag-woman","tag-who","tag-zelenskiy"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}