The country’s top regulator became a dollar millionaire with an income of 880,000 hryvnias: NAZK has referred the case to court and the NABU
27 July 12:11
Oleksiy Kucher, head of the State Regulatory Service of Ukraine , who, according to his financial disclosure statement, holds assets equivalent to 5.15 million U.S. dollars (in cryptocurrency alone), despite the National Agency for Corruption Prevention’s findings of violations in his declarations and its demand for an internal investigation, has avoided both disciplinary action and any publicly known consequences of criminal proceedings.
This is evidenced by official documents from the NACP and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
The NACP reviewed Kucher’s declarations twice
According to the NACP’s official response, the agency conducted comprehensive audits of Oleksiy Kucher’s declarations for 2019 and 2020. Both audits revealed violations.
Based on the results of the audit of the 2019 declaration, the NACP identified signs of an administrative offense under Part 4 of Article 172-6 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.
“Based on the results of the audit, a report dated July 21, 2021, No. 202/21, was prepared. Signs of an offense under Part 4 of Article 172-6 of the Code of Administrative Offenses were established (repeated violation of financial control requirements). On November 1, 2021, an authorized representative of the National Agency drew up a report on an administrative offense against O.V. Kucher, which was forwarded to the Kyiv District Court of Kharkiv for consideration,” the NACP reported.
However, the review of the 2020 declaration yielded significantly more serious findings, and the relevant materials concerning Kucher were forwarded to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).
“Based on the results, a report dated July 21, 2021, No. 199/21, was prepared. According to the findings of this report, there are indications of an offense under Article 366² of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (declaration of false information). A substantiated conclusion was drawn up and forwarded to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine for appropriate action.”
At the same time, no information regarding the NABU’s response, the initiation of criminal proceedings, or similar actions has been made public at this time.
13 million UAH in Bitcoin and a Cabinet of Ministers Order
Following an audit of the declarations submitted by Oleksiy Kucher, head of the State Regulatory Service, the NACP attempted at least twice to determine the origin of his substantial cryptocurrency holdings.
After Oleksiy Kucher was unable to confirm the origin of Bitcoin worth (at the time of the audits) over 13 million UAH, the NACP issued a statement announcing that it had submitted a directive to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
“The Head of the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NACP) issued an order to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine demanding that an official investigation be conducted and that Oleksiy Kucher, Head of the State Regulatory Service (SRS), be held disciplinarily accountable.
The NACP conducted a full audit of the SRS Chairman’s declaration. In his declaration, Oleksiy Kucher stated that he owns Bitcoin cryptocurrency worth 13.1 million hryvnias. The SRS Chairman was unable to provide the cryptocurrency’s public address.
At the same time, according to tax authorities, the total income of Oleksiy Kucher and his family members for the entire period of his employment from 2001 to 2020 amounts to less than 1 million hryvnias (a total of 880,682.56 hryvnias),” the NACP stated .
However, as indicated by the official response from the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to an information request, an official investigation into Kucher was never conducted.
According to his latest declaration, the total value of the assets of official Oleksiy Kucher and his family may amount to approximately 9.2 million U.S. dollars (according to media estimates).
After 2021, according to data from the NACP website, there is no information regarding other comprehensive audits of the official .
In total, the NACP has summoned Kucher at least six times.
Ultimately, despite the identified violations and certain corrective measures taken by the NACP, as indicated by publicly available data, Oleksiy Kucher has never been held accountable in any way. In particular, his name is also absent from the Register of Corrupt Officials.
