RFE/RL: Anti-Monopoly Committee's head investigated over suspected illicit enrichment

Anti-Monopoly Committee's chair Pavlo Kyrylenko is under investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecution Office (SAPO) over suspected illicit enrichment, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported on March 25, citing a statement from the anti-corruption agencies.

The proceedings were reportedly launched on March 22 following a media investigation by Schemes, RFE/RL's investigative project, according to which Kyrylenko's family acquired real estate and cars worth over Hr 70 million ($1.8 million) between 2020 and 2023.

The property included two plots of land near Kyiv, 200 square meters of office real estate in the capital, two crossover cars, three apartments with parking spaces in prestigious residential complexes of Kyiv, and four apartments in Uzhhorod, Schemes reported.

The majority of it was registered under relatives of the official's wife and reportedly acquired when Kyrylenko served as the governor of Donetsk Oblast. None of his relatives own a business and their salary would not be sufficient for such a purchase, RFE/RL noted.

Kyrylenko headed the Donetsk Oblast regional administration from 2019 until 2023, when he was dismissed by President Volodymyr Zelensky and appointed as a chair of the Anti-Monopoly Committee.

According to Kyrylenko, his family purchased the property thanks to start-up capital that the grandmother of his wife accumulated in the 1990s by selling shares of the Styrol plant in Horlivka, which she received as its employee.

Kyrylenko's family was unable to provide written proof of this to journalists, claiming that the documents remained in Horlivka, a Donetsk Oblast city occupied by Russia since 2014.

Schemes also discovered that Kyrylenko did not properly declare his and his family's residence – a four-room apartment in Kyiv – and a BMW car used by the official's wife.

Last December, Ukraine re-opened the public register of electronic declarations, which requires public officials to declare their property and assets.

NABU and SAPO said that the Anti-Monopoly Committee's head is investigated under the article of providing false information in a declaration, punishable by up to two years in prison, and illicit enrichment, punishable by up to 10 years.

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