Non-declaration of UAH 88 million by MP: case sent to court

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor`s Office (SAPO) issued an indictment against an incumbent MP charged with concealing certain details in his asset/income declaration for 2020. As established, the MP failed to declare the property and funds owned by a person with whom he lives, has mutual rights and responsibilities, and raises three common children. In total, these are assets worth UAH 87.6 million, including:

• an office facility;
• 13 apartments in downtown Kyiv;
• 8 parking lots;
• 2 houses in a gated community near 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;
• 2 cars;
• non-residential real estate;
• shares in a number of business entities;
• income from the sale of real estate.

The declaration also lacked information on an office facility in downtown Kyiv which, according to the investigation, the MP regularly uses. In November 2021, the MP was notified of suspicion. In June 2022, the investigation was completed. This was 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.