Journalists uncover hundreds of cases of underreporting the value of cars in officials' declarations

The media periodically reports news about suspiciously cheap cars declared by Ukrainian officials, politicians, or law enforcement officers. The journalists decided to investigate this topic further and find out how widespread the underestimation of the cost of cars is.

According to NGL.media, they found hundreds of cases of underreporting the value of cars in the declarations of officials, law enforcement officers, mayors, and MPs.

For example, former MP Iryna Kormyshkina indicated in her declaration that she uses a luxury Mercedes-Maybach S580 sedan made in 2022, which belongs to her husband Yuriy Kormyshkin. Kormyshkina estimated the cost of this car at 350 thousand hryvnias, although its official price starts at 12 million hryvnias. By the way, the owners of such cars have to pay a "luxury tax" of UAH 25 thousand annually.

As a reminder, in March of this year, she and her husband were already found guilty of false declaration and illicit enrichment. They were both sentenced to five years in prison, but the actual sentence was commuted to two years' probation.

The list of declarants with cheap cars manufactured no later than 2022 is included:

• Vitaliy Kinev, a deputy of the Izmail District Council, whose BMW 320 allegedly cost him 16 thousand hryvnias;
• Secretary of the Odesa District Administrative Court Anna Makarenko, who underestimated the cost of a BMW X3 (2022) by more than 90% - UAH 1.2 thousand;
• Deputy Head of the Economic and Operational Department of Odesa Customs Ihor Boichun, who purchased a HYUNDAI SANTA FE for allegedly UAH 13.3 thousand;
• Deputy Director of the Department of Finance of Odesa City Council Maksym Frolov, whose BMW X3 allegedly cost UAH 15.1 thousand;
• Director of the Department of Culture of the Odesa Regional State Administration Olena Oliynyk, who indicated that the cost of her Toyota Land Cruiser PRADO 150 cost her 4.9 thousand hryvnias;
• police officer Heorhiy Tudoran with a BMW X5 for UAH 4.8 thousand;
• Leonid Melezhyk, head of the State Treasury Service of Ukraine in Ochakiv district of Mykolaiv region, who managed to buy a TESLA MODEL 3 for UAH 7 thousand
• Yana Dimitrieva, a deputy of Mykolaiv District Council, who purchased a BMW 430 for UAH 13.6 thousand;
• Bohdan Kharena, a firefighter and rescuer of the State Emergency Service in Mykolaiv Oblast, with a VOLKSWAGEN GOLF for UAH 4.5 thousand;
• acting head of the State Tax Service in Mykolaiv region Roman Kornev with a VOLKSWAGEN ID4, which allegedly cost 4 thousand hryvnias, etc.

As AntAC lawyer Oleksiy Boyko explained to journalists, the understated value of the property may be a sign of concealment of own assets or a hidden bribe.

"Today he was sold a car for 10 thousand hryvnias, and then he will be asked to do something," he explains. It also happens that a car is declared as a gift and the value determined by the donor is indicated. In such cases, it is necessary to find out whether the donor could afford such a gift.

Almost all cases of understatement of the value of property in declarations stem from the lack of official income for the purchase of such property.

According to Oleksiy Boyko, understatement of the value of property (depending on the circumstances and amount) can be incriminated as illicit enrichment, declaration of false information, violation of financial control requirements, unreasonable assets or violation of the law when receiving a gift.

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