MP suspected of not declaring almost UAH 60 million

On Nov. 22, 2021, an active Verkhovna Rada MP (VIII and IX convocations) was notified of suspicion of misstatements in his e-declaration for 2020. The actions of the person fall under Part 2 Article 366-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The suspicion notice was signed by the Prosecutor General.

As established, the MP as a person authorized to perform the functions of state or local self-government failed to declare the assets and income of another person with whom he shares household, has mutual rights and responsibilities, and raises three common children. The declaration also does not contain information about the house and the land plot, which, as the investigation has found out, the MP actually uses.

According to the investigation, the MP has not declared: 13 apartments in Kyiv downtown, eight parking lots, two houses in an elite gated community outside Kyiv with a total area of ​​over 2 thousand square meters, 27 land plots with a total area of ​​about 115 hectares in Kyiv region, a cottage, non-residential estate, two cars, shares in a number of business entities, income from the sale of real estate. The total amount of misstated assets exceeds UAH 59.5 million.

This is the first suspicion notice served on an MP under Art. 366-2 after the resumption of criminal liability for deliberate misstatements in asset/income declarations. As reported, in October 2020, the Constitutional Court found Art. 366-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine ("Declaration of false information") unconstitutional. This led to the closure of 111 criminal proceedings, in which detectives investigated 180 facts of misstatements by top officials.

According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is considered non-guilty in the commission of a crime and cannot be subject to criminal punishment until he or she is found guilty by court.