Head of the State Financial Monitoring Service inactive on combating tax "wraps" worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias

Head of the State Financial Monitoring Service is inactive in the fight against tax “schemes” worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias.

Head of the State Financial Monitoring Service Ihor Cherkaskiĭ is inactive in the fight against tax “schemes” worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias — this is evidenced by the detention of a group of current and former tax service employees during the transfer of a bribe of 6 million dollars to the leadership of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.

Editorial office 368.media has found that the activity of conversion centers is impossible without the help of a government official.

To briefly remind, the bribe for Nazar Holodnytskyi was organized by Olena Mazurova, who played a central role in many corruption schemes in Ukraine. In particular, the withdrawal of funds from the TPP of former deputy from Batkivshchyna (Tymoshenko) Anatoliy Shkryblyak. The immediate “watcher” of the scheme was businessman and former top official of the State Fiscal Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs Serhiy Mishchenko, about which we wrote in detail earlier.

Not by accident, shortly before the bribe realization in SAP, on the statement of deputy Oleksandr Dubinsky, a criminal proceeding was opened on the misappropriation of 79 billion hryvnias in the so-called VAT “skru tky,” in which the head of the State Financial Monitoring Committee Ihor Cherkaskyi figures.

Let us study this figure in detail. The official entered big politics back in 2007, having moved to the Verkhovna Rada from the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko. At that time he had already served as a deputy of the Kyiv City Council, a member of the committee on military-technical cooperation and export control under the president, and so on.

His career developed quite rapidly — in 2008 year he was appointed head of the financial monitoring committee and then he drew closer to Oleksandr Turchynov, who was at that time deputy prime minister in Tymoshenko's government. According to some data, even then Cherkaskyi covered Turchynov’s schemes of misappropriating state budget funds. The budget was stolen through proxy firms, which Cherkaskyi’s financial monitoring did not pay attention to. After about a month of work, these firms were closed and new ones opened. Violations were “noted” in Cherkaskyi only after the firms were closed.

In addition, according to some data, Cherkaskyi was also involved in an organized scheme of embezzling more than 220 million hryvnias from the Rodovid Bank and 315,3 million hryvnias of refinancing from the National Bank in the spring 2009 year, by former deputy Oleksandr Shepeleiv.

From the time of leading the State Committee for Financial Monitoring, Cherkaskyi was dismissed in 2010 year after Viktor Yanukovych came to power, but already in March 2014, immediately after Yanukovych fled the country and Turchynov was appointed acting president, he returned to his post, and along with it the old schemes. New ones appeared — Turchynov and Cherkaskyi were repeatedly accused of “milking” seized assets of the “Family” with the support of the General Prosecutor’s Office and Vitaliy Yarema.

In this connection, in December 2017 the schemes of Cherkaskyi and Turchynov attracted the attention of NABU — they were suspected of embezzling 1,5 billion dollars, withdrawn from Yanukovych’s circle at the end of April 2017 year. The money was laundered through Oschadbank. However, the investigation quickly collapsed.

Incidentally, Cherkaskyi has actively “cooperated” and continues to cooperate not only with Yuri Tymoshenko’s circle but also with people close to Petro Poroshenko. For example, within the framework of Shkryblyak-Kononenko schemes of moving money through TPPs under control, which we have written about repeatedly — from 2017 to 2019 the state budget was looted, according to investigators, by more than three billion hryvnias. Recently, the first deputy head of the Kyiv GNS department Mykola Ilyashenk a and the previously mentioned Mazurova were detained on a bribe for Holovnytsky. However, corruption at the TPPs passes out of sight of the State Financial Monitoring and law enforcement agencies for reasons already clear to us.

Anatoliy Shkryblyak

Judging by all, there are no problems for Ihor Cherkaskyi in coordinating with the current government — recently SAP opened a case against him, as well as against tax officials and Finance Ministry officials in connection with misappropriation of 79 billion hryvnias in the so-called VAT “skru tky.” Cherkaskyi allegedly covered the scheme, which Ukrainian mp Oleksandr Dubinsky disclosed to SAP and NABU.

A separate and perhaps the most important role in the operation and functioning of conversion centers is played by the head of the financial monitoring service Ihor Cherkaskyi. The duties, rights, functions, and powers of the State Financial Monitoring Service are defined by the Law on Preventing and Counteracting The legalization of proceeds of crime, financing of terrorism, and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and by the Regulations on the State Service for Financial Monitoring, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers No. 537 of 29.07.2015 year. The list of financial transactions with certain characteristics subject to financial monitoring is formed in accordance with the orders of the Ministry of Finance No. 24 of 29 January 2016 year, No. 1085 of 24 November 2015 year, and the Resolution of the National Bank No. 373 of 18 August 2016 year. Cash operations (deposit, transfer, receipt of money) are the main operations during the work of conversion centers. At the same time, these operations should be monitored first and foremost. Thus, cash withdrawals in the billions monthly, with a direct legal norm on monitoring such operations, are impossible without the direct involvement of the head of the State Financial Monitoring Cherkaskyi I. in this process, despite Dubinsky’s appeal to SAP and NABU.

As a result of the appeal to SAP, a criminal proceeding was nevertheless registered, so far under part 2 article 364 of the Criminal Code, entered into the unified registry under number 42020000000000953.

The scheme involved about 550 transit-conversion centers across Ukraine, which ensured real-sector enterprises an outflow of budget funds due to illegal VAT refunds.

Tax reporting by Cherkaskyi himself shows that he is a great art lover and a collector of paintings. In his declaration he indicated a collection of 38 canvases. The official has two Kyiv apartments with a total area of 280 square meters, and a large mansion of 544,6 square meters on a plot of 1,4 thousand square meters in the elite Kozyn settlement near Kyiv, which is usually associated with Koncha-Zaspa.

All real estate is registered in the name of his wife Nataliya Cherkaska. A car Infiniti QX 56 (2010), another of his cars, a Mercedes-Benz S 500 (2006) he registered to his father Boris.

It is interesting that the wife’s business, as reflected in Cherkaski’s declaration, was not listed, but her income from entrepreneurial activity amounts to millions of hryvnias.

Meanwhile, according to our data, his father, mother, and wife are founders of the Kozyn cooperative “Zolotovoritsky,” which in the elite village distributes electricity, installs water supply, heating, air conditioning, and other services.

Cherkaskyi himself declared only his official salary — a little more than 857 thousand hryvnias. The financial assets of the Cherkaskyi family are impressive — as of the beginning of 2020 year he listed 666 thousand hryvnias, 527,4 thousand dollars, and 168 thousand euros.

The editorial notes to Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies the critical state of affairs in the country’s financial sphere due to the inaction of Ihor Cherkasky.