Hetmantsev's manipulations or how to shift responsibility to the court

The head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, Danylo Hetmantsev, has been repeatedly caught by the media trying to manipulate, interfere with the work of government agencies, including the tax service, and attempt to put pressure on Ukrainian judges. However, the MP has never been brought to justice. Obviously, the MP is confident in his impunity, so he is resorting to the old methods again, UNN writes.

From a sick head to a healthy one

In particular, Danylo Hetmantsev once again tried to put pressure on the court. This time, he criticized the decision of the Shevchenkivskyi District  Court of Kyiv, namely Judge Volodymyr Bugil, who returned the equipment seized by the BES in one of the cases concerning the production of illegal tobacco.

There is one fact in the MP's post that is even more eye-catching. The MP, who was previously called the shadow curator of the tax service by the media, mentioned the story of the Concord Bank. On August 1, 2023, the National Bank of Ukraine decided to revoke its license , after which the liquidation procedure began. According to the law, such processes are usually accompanied by thorough audits by the tax authorities. However, in the case of Concorde, the audit dragged on for more than a year, which is unprecedented.

In order to somehow justify the previous leadership of the State Tax Service, Danylo Hetmantsev decided to mention that the courts of first instance and appeal sided with Concorde and refused to disclose bank secrecy, which is protected by law in Ukraine. By doing so, the MP is apparently trying to explain why the tax authorities, which, according to media reports, were under his direct control, illegally delayed the audit of Concorde and prevented the Deposit Guarantee Fund from quickly completing the liquidation of the bank.

According to Hetmantsev, it is the courts of Dnipropetrovs'k region that "have not allowed the tax authorities to conduct an inspection of Concord Bank for almost a year." 

For some reason, Hetmantsev kept silent about the tax authorities' attempts to falsify the results of the tax audit. This was reported earlier by the bank's shareholders. "We know that based on the results of the audit, an act was drawn up in the amount of UAH 700 thousand, to which, on the personal instructions of the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Tax Committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, UAH 392 million was illegally added, and why not a billion, 3 or 10 billion?

The fact that the audit results were probably falsified is also evidenced by the fact that the bank's liquidator, appointed by the Deposit Guarantee Fund, disagreed with the audit report. He filed his objections, which were considered and resulted in an additional tax audit, which is still ongoing.

It is worth noting that Concorde's shareholders also challenged the NBU's decision to withdraw the bank from the market. The courts of first and appellate instances found the NBU's decision to revoke Concorde's license and liquidate the bank unlawful and revoked it. However, Ukrainian legislation is written in such a way that the process of withdrawing a banking institution from the market, once started, is irreversible. 

At the same time, Hetmantsev has already publicly stated that Concorde has become a "personal matter" for him, called on law enforcement to prosecute the bank's co-founders Olena and Yulia Sosedok and publicly humiliated them.

Pressure on the court again?

Now, in his post, Danylo Hetmantsev called on judges to hate their colleagues. "I want to address the judges who do their job honestly. Friends, we know you exist and respect you for your integrity. But as long as your "colleagues" do this and do not receive an adequate response, first of all from you, the entire judicial system is discredited. And society has no trust in it," Hetmantsev wrote.

This is not the first time that the head of the Rada's tax committee has tried to interfere with the court's activities and publicly criticized judges.

Earlier, Danylo Hetmantsev , the head of the Rada's tax committee, published several posts in which he called on the public to put pressure on the court and openly criticized the judges' decisions. Judge of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv Vitaliy Tsyktych appealed to the High Council of Justice and the Office of the Prosecutor General with a statement about pressure from Hetmantsev and the MP's attempts to influence the court's decisions and interfere in its activities. Then the judges refused to open criminal proceedings against the MP. 

Obviously, this decision allowed Hetmantsev to feel his own impunity and confidence that he had the authority to dictate to judges what decisions to make.

Denys Neviadomskyi, President of the All-Ukrainian Association of Retired Judges, told UNN that Hetmantsev violates the Criminal Code of Ukraine with his calls. According to him, the MP, in particular, calls for interference in the activities of the court, and also violates the presumption of innocence.

Lawyer Dmytro Kasyanenko also emphasizedthat Hetmantsev's post could be regarded as pressure on the judge and influence on his decision. And lawyer Serhiy Lysenko believesthat Hetmantsev is trying to influence the court through social media through public opinion and is taking on the role of a judge, determining which decision of Themis will be legal.