Half a million salary per month and a criminal case. How the chief lawyer of the National Bank lives

Despite the criminal investigation into alleged abuse of office, the director of the legal department of the National Bank of Ukraine, Oleksandr Zyma, continues to work in his position. In May alone, he received almost half a million hryvnias in salary, writes UNN.

According to the declarations of Oleksandr Zyma, in May he received a salary of 475,200 hryvnias.

It is worth noting that last year the official earned 6,198,238 hryvnias at the National Bank. And this is at a time when law enforcement officers are investigating a criminal case, opened under Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – abuse of power or official position, which caused grave consequences.

The criminal case, opened at the end of 2023, was initiated due to interference by Zyma, who is also the head of the administrative council of the Deposit Guarantee Fund, in judicial proceedings by sending a letter on behalf of the National Bank of Ukraine to the Fund with a "recommendation" to withdraw claims filed against the NBU. It should be noted that the chief lawyer of the regulator asked to withdraw the claims of the bank "Concord", filed before the start of its liquidation process. The plaintiff in court planned to challenge fines totaling almost UAH 63.5 million imposed by the regulator.

The Fund followed the recommendation-instruction, thereby, according to co-owner of the bank Olena Sosiedka, depriving the bank's shareholders of their constitutional right to a fair trial.

Later, the investigation of the criminal proceedings was transferred to the Pecherskyi district police department in Kyiv, whose investigators recognized the co-owners of "Concord", Olena and Yuliia Sosiedka, as victims. In the opinion of lawyers, this confirmed that Oleksandr Zyma's actions caused real and significant harm to the bank's shareholders.

In response to a request from UNN, the police reported that during the investigation, they plan to question the chief lawyer of the NBU, after which they will consider the possibility of applying to the court for his dismissal from his post.

It is worth noting that Zyma has not yet been notified of suspicion, nor has he been interrogated. Experts interviewed by UNN say that the investigation is being artificially delayed.

The Pecherskyi district prosecutor's office of Kyiv is also dissatisfied with the pace of the investigation. "The procedural manager has sent instructions to the Pecherskyi police department of the Kyiv National Police to intensify the pre-trial investigation," the agency reported in response to a request from UNN.

In addition, the Pecherskyi district court of Kyiv, by two rulings, obliged investigators to intensify the investigation of the mentioned criminal proceedings.

However, as we can see, Zyma continues to work in his position, receiving huge sums of money. Moreover, the court has not yet imposed any obligations on him that would prohibit him from influencing witnesses or distorting or destroying evidence in the case.