Expert: Demand to disclose bank secrecy from bank liquidator is a violation of the law

Instructions to anyone to open bank secrecy are a violation of the law and a total abuse. This was stated in an exclusive commentary to UNN by the head of the #SaveFOP Movement Serhiy Dorotych.

Olena Sosiedka, co-owner of JSCB Concorde, previously stated that after the decision to liquidate the bank, a tax audit was conducted, which resulted in a report worth UAH 700 thousand, but on the instructions of the head of the Verkhovna Rada Tax Committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, UAH 392 million was "illegally added". However, according to her, even this was not enough for him and he is now demanding that the DGF disclose bank secrecy to "realize his criminal plans.

"This is a violation of the law... The authorities are doing this for their own benefit, to serve their superiors. Currently, officials are motivated by the fact that they need to collect taxes because we have a hole in the budget. And for such activities, there are a lot of bad guys, who go to the government to pack their bags and curry favor with their superiors. It doesn't matter if you are a bank, an individual entrepreneur, or a manufacturing company. They were given a task, they came, they collected what they were told to collect, and they collected it," the expert said, commenting on Sosedka's statement about Hetmantsev's demand to disclose bank secrecy.

He emphasized that tax audits, especially of large taxpayers, are always carried out by the best specialists and they know exactly what they are doing and when they are committing violations. After all, he said, they are given a task to determine what the results of the inspection should be. This has been repeatedly stated by entrepreneurs themselves, who have unofficially admitted to tax authorities.

"The task is to rip them off. Hetmantsev clearly said what is firmly in the minds of officials - that entrepreneurs are geese that need to be plucked. And geese are first plucked for feathers, and then they can be roasted," Dorotych says.

According to the expert, Ukraine's legislation is structured in such a way that it is always possible to find a loophole so that deliberate abuse is regarded as a technical error that will cost the company "a lot of money.

"Manual control and no accountability of government officials. We are not a state governed by the rule of law. You have to go to court to prove and cancel... This is wrong. There is no presumption of innocence, you have to prove that you are not a camel. And people like Hetmantsev, like the top leadership, they just see their government positions as a way to make money," he added.

Recall

Concorde Bank shareholder Olena Sosiedka said that the Central Interregional Department of the State Tax Service for Large Taxpayers is planning to consider on January 25 the objections filed by the liquidator of Concorde Bank to the results of the tax audit, which illegally "drew an act" for almost UAH 400 million. According to her, if this act is legalized by the commission, it will open a "Pandora's box" and the banking environment will realize that the tax authorities can visit them at any time, unreasonably impose billions of dollars in fines, and this will be a disaster for any bank.

She emphasized that the Concorde team is ready to fight for what is right and appeal to law enforcement, in particular, they are currently preparing an official appeal to the NABU regarding Hetmantsev's illegal actions.

Earlier, Dmytro Oleksiyenko, a member of the Board of ICC Ukraine, a member of the Board of the Association of Taxpayers of Ukraine, told UNN that since 2019, the mechanism of bank secrecy has been destroyed in Ukraine and that the head of the Verkhovna Rada Tax Committee, Danylo Hetmanetsev, is behind it. The expert noted that the recently presented National Revenue Strategy provides for the disclosure of banking secrecy, which will allow taxing everyone and everything. Currently, banking secrecy protects citizens' money on card accounts from the tax authorities.