Salary of UAH 332 thousand: despite the criminal case, the NBU's chief lawyer continues to work and receive exorbitant salaries

The director of the legal department of the National Bank of Ukraine, Oleksandr Zyma, received more than 300 thousand hryvnias in October, against whom criminal proceedings have been opened for alleged abuse of power or official position, UNN reports.

Oleksandr Zyma, the NBU's chief lawyer, filed a report with the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption on significant changes in his property status. He indicated that in October he received UAH 332,025 in salary.

According to of his declaration for 2023, Zyma earned almost UAH 5.5 million from the National Bank during the year. In addition, last year he received more than UAH 1.8 million in income in the amount of the nominal value of redeemed government bonds.

Zima indicated in his declaration that he kept $170 thousand in cash. His bank accounts last year  totaled almost 450 thousand hryvnias and more than 23 thousand pounds sterling. The NBU chief lawyer also has four bars of bank gold.

Interestingly, Oleksandr Zyma did not indicate any income of his wife Kateryna Zyma in his declaration. According to his declaration, she has only UAH 2,452 in her bank account. At the same time, according to the declaration, Kateryna Zyma made almost UAH 1.9 million in advance payment under the contract with LLC "ASSET MANAGEMENT COMPANY ‘BUDKEPITAL’

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The criminal proceedings were opened due to a letter from Oleksandr Zyma to the Deposit Guarantee Fund (DGF). In the document, Zyma, who is both the director of the NBU's legal department and the chairman of the DGF's Administrative Board, recommended on behalf of the National Bank that the Fund withdraw the lawsuits filed by Concord Bank against the NBU. These lawsuits concerned the cancellation of fines amounting to almost UAH 63.5 million and were filed before the decision to liquidate the bank.

The Deposit Guarantee Fund followed this recommendation, which, according to Olena Sosedka, deprived the bank's shareholders of their constitutional right to a fair trial.

In this way, Zyma may have called into question the independence of the Deposit Guarantee Fund's management, which now has a negative impact on cooperation with international financial institutions. It is possible that, for example, the IMF, due to its dissatisfaction with the situation, has begun to actively demand that Ukraine develop a procedure and hold an open competition for the position of the DGF Managing Director.

Currently, Zyma's case has been transferred from the SBI to the Pechersk Police Department in Kyiv for investigation. Law enforcement officials told UNN that they plan to interrogate the NBU's chief lawyer, and after serving him with a notice of suspicion, investigators are likely to petition the court to remove Zyma from his duties as director of the NBU's legal department. Investigators also recognized Olena and Yulia Sosedok as victims in this criminal proceeding, confirming that Zyma's actions caused harm.

Despite the seriousness of the accusations, Oleksandr Zyma continues to work at the National Bank and receive an exorbitant salary. The question arises as to whether such large salaries for NBU officials during the war are justified, especially given that the official is involved in a case of abuse of power