During a search of two bank safe-deposit boxes belonging to Yuriy Chmyr, former deputy head of the former Presidential Administration under disgraced ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, more than $1 million dollars was found, almost half of what he had declared officially, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) chief Yuriy Lutsenko has said.

"During the searches of two safe-deposit boxes $1.180 million was found, instead of the $572,000 he had declared officially," Lutsenko said on his Facebook page on Friday. He added that the undeclared cash may violate Article 366-1 (declaration of false information) of Ukraine's Criminal Code and lead to a 2-year prison sentence, if he is convicted of the charge.

In addition, Lutsenko said investigators learned that 14 apartments were registered to his daughter, according to media accounts.

As earlier reported, in June 2017 the PGO office for Sumy region said it was conducting a pretrial investigation pursuant to Part 1 of Article 212 of Ukraine's Criminal Code (tax evasion) involving the family of a former high-ranking state official during Yanukovych's term as president and who is currently a member of Sumy regional council.

According to the PGO, during the investigation it was established that Chmyr's daughter for the last four years had acquired 12 apartments in central Kyiv and three parking places costing an estimated UAH 50 million. The salary of the government official and members of his family, meanwhile, according to Ukraine's State Fiscal Service, did not correspond to the purchases made.

After receiving permission from Kyiv's Pechersky District Court, the PGO investigators reviewed documents relating to the Chmyr family's real estate purchases, bank accounts and copies of income declarations made by Chmyr at his place of work.

In addition, as of February 8, 2017, Ukraine's PGO said Chmyr, who from December 2013 worked as deputy head of the Presidential Administration, as well as head of Sumy region's Party of Regions, may have participated in the organization of the violent break-up of protests in Kyiv during February 2014.

The pretrial investigation established that the former deputy head of the Presidential Administration dealing with humanitarian affairs helped organize the violent break-up of the anti-presidential demonstrations in Kyiv on February 18 and February 19, 2014. Investigators noted Chmyr's use of a mobile telephone with a subscription to the private stock company MTS Ukraine.

Prosecutors received court permission to access information and documents belonging to MTS Ukraine, including Chmyr's telephone conversations during this period.