Acting Deputy Head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine Yevhen Sokur failed to report almost UAH 2.6 million from the sale of securities received in 2022 in his 2023 declaration and did not report changes in his property status. For this, he may be brought to administrative responsibility and banned from holding public office, UNN writes.
According to Yevhen Sokur's annual declaration for 2022, he received UAH 2 583 287 from the sale of securities.
In addition, he declared UAH 543 ,069 of his salary at the State Tax Service. In addition, in 2022, Sokur received UAH 203 ,105 in salary from the Verkhovna Rada's Office of Affairs, as he worked as an assistant to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, MP Danylo Hetmantsev, before being appointed to the State Tax Service.
In addition, at the same time, he received UAH 141 ,562 from Yurimex, a company associated with Hetmantsev.
In his annual declaration for 2022, Sokur indicated that he had several bank accounts. In particular, he had UAH 79 on his account with Credit Agricole Bank, UAH 87 ,909 and USD 2 on his account with Universal Bank, UAH 105 ,828 on his account with Ukrgasbank, and UAH 467 on his account with PrivatBank.
In 2022, Sokur kept $80 ,000 and 50 ,000 hryvnias in cash.
It is worth noting that almost UAH 2.6 million received in 2022 disappeared from Sokur's annual declaration for 2023.
He indicated that in 2023 he had the same UAH 79 on his account at Credit Agricole Bank. At Universal Bank, his account “lost” almost 79 thousand hryvnias to 8 963 hryvnias. Sokur still has $2 on another account at this bank.
In addition, the tax officer's account at Ukrgasbank decreased by more than 57 thousand hryvnias to 48 413 hryvnias. In 2023, Sokur had UAH 489 on his PrivatBank account.
In 2023, he kept 78 ,000 dollars in cash (2 thousand dollars less than in 2022), 50 ,000 hryvnias, and 214 euros.
In addition, last year Sokur received UAH 621 ,167 in salary from the State Tax Service and UAH 26 in interest on his PrivatBank account. By the way, one of the chief tax officers probably miscalculated, because the difference between the amounts of money in PrivatBank is 22 hryvnias.
That is, according to UNN estimates, Sokur spent a total of more than 2.7 million hryvnias and 2 thousand dollars over the year, which is more than 226.5 thousand hryvnias per month. However, according to his tax returns, he did not acquire any new real or personal property.
According to Oleksandr Zolotukhin, a member of the National Bar Association, the official may try to explain why he did not declare these expenses by saying that he leads a lifestyle and, for example, likes to eat out.
He really should have declared any purchases above UAH 140 thousand that he made in the current year. In the future, he can explain it in such a way that he went out every day and bought, say, UAH 50 thousand worth of groceries, like he likes to eat delicious food, conditionally. They often do this: they don't record significant purchases and don't record that they have them left - they say they led such a lifestyle. But this is not an objective explanation that he could have spent this amount of money on accommodation or food or anything else in a year
According to him, concealment of significant expenses from the NACP by an official is a violation of anti-corruption legislation, which is subject to administrative liability. Sokur may face a fine and a ban on certain activities.
This fine may affect his further civil service
Recall
Earlier , UNN reported that the acting deputy head of the State Tax Service, Yevhen Sokur, had probably entered inaccurate data in his 2023 declaration. In particular, he did not indicate in the document the information about his partner. During the investigation into the case of an alleged attempted assassination attempt, Sokur himself told law enforcement officers that since 2016 he had been living with a girl named Alina in an apartment at 6-D Lobanovskoho Avenue. Following a deputy appeal by Nina Yuzhanina, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, the NACP launched an investigation into Yevhen Sokur . In response to a request from UNN, the Agency also confirmed that they are monitoring Sokur's lifestyle. Kateryna Butko, head of the Public Council at the NAPC, noted that the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption is checking whether Sokur and his live-in girlfriend Alina had a common life.
Add
As it turned out, on April 21, 2022, the State Tax Service appealed to the NACP with a request to conduct a monitoring check on Yevhen Sokur. The monitoring did not take place because of martial law declared due to Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the tax office could not but know that there would be no inspection.
Interestingly, in April 2022, Evgeny Sokur was selected for the position of head of the Department of economic analysis of the state tax service, but the competition was then failed by the former assistant to the chairman of the tax committee of the Rada Daniil Getmantsev. The winner of the selection on April 18, 2022 was announced Marina Baryakhtar, who, according to media reports, refused to take up the position three days later. That is, it actually gave way to Sokur, whom the media call Getmantsev's right-hand man in the tax service. At that time, Sokur, who did not work a day in the state tax service, needed this position as an intermediate stage to the position of acting head of State. deputy chairman of the state tax service of Ukraine. After all, in just two weeks - on May 7, he received this leadership position. It is possible that there was an agreement with Barakhtyar, because she did not leave the STS bodies after taking the position of director of the risk management department.