Acting Deputy Head of the State Tax Service Yevhen Sokur may be prosecuted after the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption completes its inspection. This opinion was expressed in an exclusive commentary to UNN by the managing partner of GRACERS, lawyer Sergei Lysenko.
Context
Earlier UNN reported that the acting deputy head of the State Tax Service, Yevhen Sokur, had allegedly 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 alleged 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. Kateryna Butko, head of the NAPC's Public Council, said that the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption is checking whether Sokur and his live-in girlfriend, Alina, had a common life.
In accordance with the Law on Prevention of Corruption , the NACP conducts selective monitoring of the lifestyle of the declaring entities in order to establish whether their standard of living is consistent with the property owned by them and their family members and the income received by them in accordance with the declaration of a person authorized to perform the functions of the state or local self-government.
At the same time, the law states that any persons who cohabited with the declarant for 30 calendar days preceding the last day of the reporting period or for a total of at least 183 days during the year preceding the year of filing the declaration, but were not married, are family members.
Thus, the information of a girl named Alina, who lived with the acting deputy head of the State Tax Service, Yevhen Sokur, in an apartment at 6-D Lobanovskoho Avenue, should also be reflected in his declaration,
According to him, if the lifestyle monitoring reveals signs of a corruption or corruption-related offense, criminal proceedings may be opened against the acting deputy head of the State Tax Service, Yevhen Sokur, under Article 366-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (declaration of false information), if the information differs from the true information by between UAH 1.5 million and UAH 6 million.
If such information is for less than UAH 1.5 million, he may be held administratively liable.
Another legal nuance is also interesting. Thus, if Yevhen Sokur recants his testimony regarding his residence since 2016 with a person named Alina, no less negative consequences may occur for the latter, namely, bringing him to criminal liability under Article 384 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misleading a court or other authorized body),
In addition, according to the lawyer, Sokur, as a civil servant, may be subject to one of the following types of disciplinary action, including a warning, reprimand, warning of incomplete service, or even dismissal.
Recall
Earlier, UNN reported that the assassination attempt on the acting deputy head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine, Yevhen Sokur, raises many questions about its authenticity. It could have been staged to divert attention from the criminal proceedings against Sokur for abuse of office.
This is a criminal proceedingopened on November 4, 2022 under Part 3 of Art. 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, on the fact of abuse of office by the acting Deputy Head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine Yevhen Sokur, who on October 26, 2022 issued an order to revoke the license of PJSC Ukrtatnafta for the production of fuel. Such actions of Sokur, according to the investigation , caused serious consequences for the company and the state in the form of the inability to fulfill the mobilization tasks of the Ministry of Defense for the production and supply of petroleum products for the needs of defense and defense capability of the state.