Work in vain: why will the court close cases on MPs’ failure to declare property?

by Vadym Valko, originally published by UP

During past six months, the NABU and the SAPO have sent more than ten cases to the court on charges of MPs’ false declarations. However, nowadays it looks like at least some of these cases will be closed due to the statute of limitations in next month.

Most of proceedings were initiated in 2021 after full verification of declarations by specialists of the National Agency for Corruption Prevention.

Then materials of verifications were sent to the NABU, which registered criminal proceedings. After that, detectives conducted investigations, but due to the full-scale aggression of the russian federation several months were lost. Only at the end of last year cases began to be actively brought to the court.

Thanks to leniency of MPs, the maximum punishment under this article in then current version of the code was only 51.000 UAH in fines or community service up to 240 hours.

In other words, these were not crimes, but misdemeanors, so the statute of limitations in these cases was only two years. It is calculated from the date of submitting declarations with false information. In most cases this is March-April 2021.

Cases of failure to declare

MP from the party Servant of the People Anna Kolisnyk is accused of failing to include in her declaration information about her ownership of 1/4 of non-residential building in Kharkiv and the use of Cadillac car.

Moreover, she is accused of failing to declare two rented apartments in Kyiv, as officials are obliged to declare not only their own property, but also rented property. At the same time, the official or his family members should use such property on the last day of the year or for at least half of days in the year. The value of all allegedly undeclared assets is about 4.4 million UAH.  

Materials were submitted to the court in October last year. Despite the fact that this is only misdemeanor and consideration of such cases is quite simple, the court has not been able to complete its consideration for 5 months.

During this time, almost two dozen court meetings were scheduled, and half of them did not take place: either the accused was ill and was on business trip, or the air raid alert prevented the meeting from taking place, and once the meeting was postponed due to the prosecutor’s absence.

The statute of limitations expires on March 17, 2023. And it looks like the case will simply be closed.

The similar fate awaits MP of the party Batkivshchyna Mykhaylo Volynets, who allegedly concealed his common-law wife’s income and car, as well as the use of Toyota Highlander SUV registered to his son. The total value of assets is 1.8 million UAH.

The case was sent to the court in December 2022. During this time, 15 court meetings were scheduled, and half of meetings were canceled due to Volynets’s business trips and sick leave. At one of the last meetings, lawyers said that MP was abroad, where he had been suddenly hospitalized.

The statute of limitations in this case expires on March 26, 2023. This is the second time that MP has successfully escaped from attack of the anti-corruption authorities. The last time, the HACC did not want to recover from him doubtfully acquired apartment in elite residential complex worth 7.6 million UAH as part of civil forfeiture.

Maksym Pashkovskyi, MP of the party Servant of the People, is accused of failing to declare rented apartment worth more than 2 million UAH.  Over the period of two months, a dozen court meetings were scheduled in the case, but most of them did not take place. Mostly due to hospitalization of Pashkovskyi. 

The court fined him several times for failing to appear, and later had to use compulsory summons. After that MP started to attend court meetings, and the evidence is being examined. The statute of limitations expires on March 12, so the case will be closed soon.

Yuriy Kamelchuk from the party Servant of the People is accused of failing to declare rented apartment in Pechersk worth 3.6 million UAH and loan to the bank in the amount of 48.800 USD. The case went to the court on January 10, 2023. Since then, more than a dozen court meetings have been scheduled. 

At first, MP tried to ignore meetings, but he was fined for failure to appear. After that, he started to attend meetings. The court has completed examination of evidence, and this week the defendant is to be questioned and there will be debates. However, given that the statute of limitations expires on April 5, there is no chance of the case being considered by the appellate court before then.

Iryna Konstankevych from the parliamentary group For the Future allegedly failed to indicate in her declaration rented apartment in Pechersk worth 2.5 million UAH.

The case was sent to the court on January 11, 2023. Since then, 9 court meetings have been scheduled, but at least third part of them have been postponed. Questionings in the case are currently ongoing. The last day of the statute of limitations is April 4.

Margaryta Shol, MP from the party Servant of the People, is accused of failing to declare rented apartment in Pechersk worth 5 million UAH. During the pre-trial investigation, she was even put on the wanted list.

The case was sent to the court on January 17, 2023. During this time, 11 court meetings were scheduled. At first, she did not attend meetings (coronavirus, sick leave, plenary sessions of the Parliament). Later, she did attend and stated that she was not renting apartment at the time of filling out the declaration, so she had not declared it. Since MP was put on the wanted list during the investigation, the statute of limitations in the case was briefly suspended and is currently set to expire on April 11. The court scheduled next meeting in two weeks.

Share the news

Also read

All news
Businesses should be protected from illegal pressure by the cleaning of law enforcement system not by “Lozovyi’s amendments”

Also read

All news
Analysis of the new legislation on electronic asset declaration system (draft laws No.9534, No.9587)
How the Parliament will try to falsify the restoration of asset declaration system

subscription

Get the AntAC's news first
By filling in this form, I agree to the terms&conditions Privacy Policy