Expert: Top officials are increasingly turning to teams of lawyers to help them fill out their financial disclosure forms due to the risk of errors
10 April 15:36
Filling out electronic declarations is increasingly becoming a complex legal and financial process, especially for officials with substantial wealth and a complex asset structure. Andriy Mazalov, an expert in anti-corruption law, discussed this during a YouTube interview with the publication “Kommersant Ukrainian.”
According to him, for officials with a standard set of assets, the declaration procedure remains relatively simple; however, the situation becomes significantly more complicated when corporate rights, foreign accounts, and participation in business structures are involved.
“Where an official has a standard set of assets—real estate, a car, and a salary—there is no difficulty in filling out the declaration using the algorithms provided by the NACP,” Mazalov noted.
At the same time, he said, in the case of complex financial assets, it is practically impossible to manage without professional assistance.
“But if a person has significant wealth, holds corporate rights, has foreign accounts, and owns stakes in LLCs—that is, there are certain nuances that cannot be navigated without a team of lawyers,” the expert explained.
Mazalov emphasized that in practice, top officials are increasingly hiring entire teams of specialists to prepare their declarations.
“And indeed, there is a trend where, primarily, top officials engage entire teams. These teams include lawyers, financiers, and accountants,” he said.
At the same time, the expert believes that this approach “improves the quality of the declarations.”
Separately, he drew attention to the risks of liability even for minor errors in declarations, which can have serious legal consequences.
“In general, people are beginning to understand that they need to seek professional help when filling out declarations. Why? Because even a small mistake, a technical error, can already result in administrative or criminal liability,” the expert noted.
He also emphasized that the consequences may include being entered into relevant registries, even if there is no intentional offense.
“And the worst part is being entered into the Register of Corrupt Officials. Even if a person has not, in our understanding, committed a corruption offense, but has made a mistake in filling out the declaration, they may be subject to either administrative or criminal liability,” Mazalov said.
In his view, the approach to asset declarations has changed significantly in recent years and has become more professional and formalized.
