The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office (SAPO) deckared the suspicion to the MP from "European Solidarity" Artur Herasimov.
This was reported in the NABU press service.
In 2020, he did not declare an estate and a parking space in the Spanish province of Alicante, which he has owned with his wife since 2013. Also, more than $1.6 thousand in accounts in Ukrainian banks turned out to be undeclared.
Herasimovʼs actions were qualified under Part 1 of Art. 366-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (as amended by Law of Ukraine No. 1074-IX dated December 4, 2020).
NABU also noted that at the time of serving the suspicion, the whereabouts of the MP were unknown.
What is it about?
At the end of April 2021, "Schemes" reported that Herasimov together with his wife owns a two-story house in Spain, but never once indicated the estate in his declaration.
According to journalists, the villa is located in the town of Javea, Alicante province, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Its area is 120 square meters, another 28 square meters are occupied by terraces.
Journalists note that Herasimov and his wife became the owners of the villa in 2013. However, after being elected as a deputy, he never declared it. Herasimov first entered the Verkhovna Rada in 2014 from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction. Even then, as a MP, he was supposed to declare Spanish property, but he did not do it.
The approximate market price of such a villa, as "Schemes" reported, judging by the value of similar houses put up for sale nearby, may exceed 10 million hryvnias.
After the "Schemes" investigation, Herasimov stated that he informed the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) "about possible inaccuracies in the declaration."
"I hope that the NAPC and other competent bodies will deal with this issue in the same objective manner, without double standards, as happened in the case when Volodymyr Zelensky reported inaccuracies in the declaration [...] and explained that it happened due to a mistake and is not connected with self-interested motives," the MP noted at the time.
In June 2021, NABU, under the procedural guidance of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office, opened criminal proceedings on the fact that Artur Herasimov allegedly failed to declare an estate in Spain.
At that time, NABU spokeswoman Svitlana Olifira noted that the MP faces either a fine in the amount of 3 000 to 5 000 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens, or correctional labor lasting from 150 to 240 hours, or restriction of freedom for a period of up to two years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions for three years