NABU has distanced itself from the case involving DRS Chairman Kucher: materials regarding inaccurate asset declarations have been handed over to the police
4 August 08:40
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine has explained for the first time what happened to the case files regarding Oleksiy Kucher, head of the State Regulatory Service, which the National Agency for Corruption Prevention had forwarded to the Bureau back in 2021 after identifying signs of a criminal offense.
According to the NABU’s response to an information request from the editorial staff of
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NABU’s Response
The Bureau’s response stated that NABU had received the materials from the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NAZK). After reviewing them, the materials were forwarded to the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Kharkiv region based on jurisdictional authority.
Context
Previously, the NACP had conducted two full audits of the declarations of Oleksiy Kucher, head of the State Regulatory Service—for 2019 and 2020.
Based on the 2019 declaration, the agency identified signs of an administrative offense, after which a report was drawn up under Part 4 of Article 172-6 of the Code of Administrative Offenses and forwarded to one of the Kharkiv courts.
In contrast, based on the results of the review of the 2020 declaration, the NACP concluded that there were signs of a criminal offense (declaration of false information) and forwarded a substantiated conclusion to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).
Separately, the NACP issued an order to the Cabinet of Ministers demanding that an official investigation be conducted and that the head of the State Regulatory Service be held disciplinarily accountable.
The basis for this included, in particular, questions regarding the origin of the declared bitcoins. According to the NACP, Kucher declared bitcoins worth over 13 million UAH (at the time of the audit), but was unable to provide the public address of his crypto wallet.
“The head of the State Revenue Service provided false information regarding his ownership of cryptocurrency, thereby committing a crime under Part 2 of Article 366-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine,” the NACP emphasized.
In addition, the agency noted that, according to information from tax authorities, the total official income of Kucher and his family members from 2001 to 2020 amounted to only 880,682.56 UAH.
However, as previously reported by the Cabinet of Ministers in response to a request from the editorial office, an official investigation into the head of the State Regulatory Service was never conducted.
According to his latest declaration, Oleksiy Kucher, head of the State Regulatory Service of Ukraine, owns crypto assets equivalent to $5.15 million (data from the Incrypted portal).
As a reminder, the National Agency for Corruption Prevention conducts full audits of only 0.15% of all submitted declarations each year. What do these statistics actually reveal, and why can one end up on the “corrupt officials” registry even for simply filing a declaration late? In an interview with the YouTube channel
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