Lviv customs inspector fired after video on social media showing off expensive clothes - Suspilne
Kyiv • UNN
Lviv customs inspector Yulia Dryga was fired after a video surfaced on social media showing her bragging about her expensive clothes and accessories worth more than $25,000, including a $5,000 Cartier watch and an $18,000 hat.
Yulia Dryga, chief inspector of the administrative and economic activities department of Lviv Customs, was fired after a video appeared online where she told blogger Nicholas Karma about the price of her clothes and accessories. In particular, the state official was wearing a hat worth 18 thousand hryvnias and a Cartier watch worth 5000 dollars. Dryga's dismissal was reported by Suspilne correspondents, UNN reported.
Details
The former official was caught on video by a well-known fashion blogger Nicholas Karma, who asks random passers-by "how much her outfit costs." Back when she was the chief inspector of the administrative and economic activities department of Lviv Customs, Dryha confessed to the blogger about the cost of her outfit. According to her, a hat by Ukrainian designer Ruslan Baginsky costs 18,000 UAH, a Louis Vuitton bag costs $1,500, Hermes shoes cost $800, a Cartier watch costs $5,000, and a dog leash by Gucci costs $200.
The video of the inspector posted on TikTok was noticed by journalist Taras Seredych. According to him, it was posted in the morning, on April 12. And later it was deleted.
On his Instagram account, Nicholas Karma explained that he deleted the post at the request of Yulia Dryga. More precisely, he archived it so that the video was not available for viewing. However, the blogger later reopened the video for viewing, as Yulia did not object to it.
In the video, Yulia Dryha said that she works "a little for herself and a little for the state." It should be noted that in her declaration for 2023, the inspector indicated 136 thousand hryvnias of salary at customs, 41 thousand hryvnias from business activities, and 3 thousand dollars in cash.
The head of Lviv Customs, Andriy Kuznik, responded to the scandalous video. On his Facebook page, he wrote that "Yulia Dryga wrote a letter of resignation by agreement of the parties, on the basis of which I signed the relevant order.
Since August 02, 2023, she has been working as the Chief Inspector of the Department of Administrative and Economic Activities. After today's video, an inspection was launched, in the framework of which Yulia Dryga was invited to give explanations to the Corruption Prevention Department.
Also, according to the head of the Lviv Customs, the NACP was informed about this situation "in order to conduct an audit and respond accordingly.
After her dismissal, Dryga told a journalist that she "hadn't had time to adapt to the job yet." Her watch is not an authentic Cartier, but a copy, while her Louis Vuitton bag, although original, is from the old collection and was bought with money from the business.
At the same time, when I asked her a specific question: "which of the things you mentioned in the video is the original?" she answered "nothing!" A bit of confusion.
