The head of the European Solidarity faction in the Odesa Regional Council, Mykhailo Shmushkovych, failed to declare his wife's apartments and more than UAH 8 million in cash, while the lawmaker himself was suspected of involvement in schemes related to reserving employees of security companies. This is stated in an investigation by Ukrainski Novyny.
According to the publication, the matter concerns two apartments belonging to Shmushkovych's wife, Kateryna, in Odesa, with a total area of 224.9 m².
"An analysis of Shmushkovych's seven declarations for 2019–2025 revealed sharp lapses in the politician's memory. He completely forgot to declare his wife Kateryna's two apartments and $180,000 in cash. These are apartments in Odesa with areas of 172.2 m² and 52.7 m²," the article claims.
The journalists also separately raised the issue of the lawmaker's wife's $180,000 in cash savings.
"The couple also forgot to declare $180,000 (more than UAH 8 million) in cash." In other words, the more the Poroshenko ally's wealth grew, the worse his memory became when filling out his declarations. One can only assume where the money was transferred," the article says.
The publication also points to Shmushkovych's possible involvement in schemes to reserve employees of security companies.
"When the Odesa Regional Council considered an appeal to the government regarding the possibility of increasing the number of employees of private security agencies eligible for reservation, Shmushkovych was one of the active supporters of the issue. By a strange coincidence, the security industry is part of his business biography. In his declarations for 2019–2021, Shmushkovych stated that he owned 50% of the company 'Security Service 37'," the publication writes.
The article also claims that during the full-scale war, Shmushkovych dined at restaurants in European countries together with his ally Oleh Kaminker. At the same time, the lawmaker himself publicly criticized foreign trips funded by taxpayers' money undertaken by Vadym Shkarivskyi, deputy head of the Odesa Regional Council.
It is known that Mykhailo Shmushkovych heads the European Solidarity faction in the Odesa Regional Council, while the party's leader, Petro Poroshenko, in just two years of the war increased his wealth almost 20 times more than before the war.