"A dog nicknamed Druzhok is missing", or where Sokur disappeared to
Kyiv • UNN
Where did Yevhenii Sokur, the former acting deputy head of the State Tax Service, disappear to?
The head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, Danylo Hetmantsev, has apparently dismissed his scandalous assistant Yevheniy Sokur, who was previously the acting Deputy Head of the State Tax Service. Sokur's name has disappeared from the list of Hetmantsev's assistants, which is posted on the Verkhovna Rada website, UNN writes.
After the Cabinet dismissed Sokur from the post of acting Deputy Head of the State Tax Service, Hetmantsev took him as an assistant. However, their cooperation was short-lived, as evidenced by the data from the people's deputy's card, Sokur is no longer his assistant.
It is possible that such manipulations took place in order for Sokur to receive a reservation from mobilization, because he is of conscription age. As you know, an assistant to a deputy is a person who ensures the activity of a parliamentarian, therefore, assistants, like the people's deputies themselves, are allowed to receive reservations from mobilization. Be that as it may, the former assistant to Hetmantsev has now gone to "free bread".
UNN found out where Sokur actually disappeared to and what he is doing now. Everything is prosaic - at the end of February, he registered a sole proprietorship and decided to go into business.
It is not surprising that he chose legal services and consulting on taxation as his business. Indeed, what else should a former tax officer do, who in his position oversaw all the most profitable areas of the tax office - licensing, excise taxes, and the inclusion of enterprises in risky ones. During the work of Hetmantsev's team, legends began to circulate about kickbacks in the tax office. After a significant public outcry, numerous complaints from businesses about oppression by the tax authorities, and numerous facts of exposure of corruption at the beginning of the year, this body was still cleared of Hetmantsev's people.
It can be assumed that while Sokur's patron remains in power and heads the tax committee of the Rada, the affairs of the newly minted businessman will go uphill and there will be a queue of clients for him.
Hetmantsev's cooperation with Sokur has been going on for many years, the latter has become virtually a "son" to the people's deputy. After all, Sokur started his career in a law firm founded by Hetmantsev, then worked as his assistant and, according to journalists, it was Hetmantsev who later pushed Sokur into a high position in the tax office. For this, Sokur faithfully served his patron for a long time.
Another obvious conclusion suggests itself - it is much easier to carry out schemes and receive lobbying orders and, ultimately, funds, through a person who has proved that he can be completely trusted, and who is not in full view.
Let's add
The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) has been monitoring Sokur's lifestyle for six months. While in office at the State Tax Service, he submitted annual declarations of income to the NAPC in accordance with current legislation. As UNN found out, the former official had been providing false information in the documents for years. He did not include information that he had been living with Alina Lebedeva, the owner of a flower boutique in the center of Kyiv, since 2016.
When this information became public, Nina Yuzhanina, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, appealed to the NAPC with a deputy's request to find out whether Sokur was indeed declaring unreliable data. In September 2024, the National Agency announced that it had launched a relevant audit, which is still ongoing.
The Cabinet dismissed Sokur from the State Tax Service on January 3, 2025. In accordance with current legislation, the former official submitted a new declaration to the NAPC in connection with his dismissal, and later an annual declaration for 2024.
In the latest documents, after the scandal and the NAPC's investigation, Sokur indicated that he was living with Alina Lebedeva. However, the declaration did not indicate what income his common-law wife receives, stating that Lebedeva did not provide him with this information.
Let us remind you
Earlier, UNN reported that the assassination attempt on Yevhen Sokur, the acting Deputy Head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine, raises many questions about its authenticity. It could have been staged to divert attention from the criminal proceedings against Sokur for abuse of office.
We are talking about criminal proceedings, opened on November 4, 2022 under Part 3 of Art. 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, on the fact of abuse of power by the acting Deputy Head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine, Yevhen Sokur, who on October 26, 2022 issued an order to annul the license of PJSC Ukrtatnafta for the production of fuel. According to the investigation, such actions by Sokur caused serious consequences to the company, as well as to the state in the form of the impossibility of fulfilling 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. The investigation of this case is still ongoing.
