16 May 2025
(Photo: website of the State Tax Service in Odesa region)
The wife of the former head of the Main Department of the State Tax Service in Odesa region, Ruslan Khvan, purchased luxury cars at prices significantly below market prices and then sold one of them.
This was reported by the State Bureau of Investigation.
On May 16, the prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office filed a lawsuit with the High Anti-Corruption Court to recognize these vehicles as unjustified assets.
These are a Toyota Land Cruiser 200 (2018), which was purchased for only UAH 300 thousand, and an Audi RSQ8 (2020) for UAH 1.4 million, although their market value exceeds UAH 5.3 million.
According to detectives, the Audi was later sold at market price, and the former official's family bought another luxury car, a BMW X7 xDrive, with the proceeds.
An analysis of the official's and his family's finances showed that their official income would not have allowed them to purchase such property. In this regard, prosecutors filed a lawsuit with the HACC, and the court seized the Toyota Land Cruiser 200 and BMW X7. The final decision on recognizing the property as unjustified is expected later.
The SBI did not name the tax officer, but Intent found out that it was Ruslan Khvan, the former head of the Main Department of the State Tax Service in Odesa Oblast, who was fired in May 2024. After that, he was transferred to the Lviv Oblast Tax Service as a chief inspector, but was already fired.
According to the declaration, the wife of tax officer Ruslan Khvan purchased a 2018 Toyota Land Cruiser 200 in September 2022. The cost of this car at the time of purchase was listed as 300 thousand hryvnias. And in March 2024, she declared a BMW X7 made in 2023, worth 5.7 million hryvnias. Both cars are officially registered in his wife's name.
The declaration also lists the family's property. His wife owns a 63 m² apartment in Odesa. Hwang himself owns a 15-hectare plot of land in the village of Putrivka in Kyiv region and a 221.7 m² house in the same village. He also uses another apartment in Odesa with an area of 202.4 m², which he has included in his declaration since 2022.
In January 2025, Yuriy Gursky, who previously served as deputy head of the tax office in Rivne region, was appointed as the new head of the Odesa tax office. Before that, he worked in the tax authorities of Lviv region.
Ірина Глухова