PGO sees finance minister's demand for Lutsenko's resignation as desire to avoid liability for tax evasion
The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine (PGO) regards a statement by Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk as a desire to avoid criminal liability for tax evasion, the prosecutor general's spokeswoman, Larysa Sarhan, has said.
"The PGO considers a statement by Finance Minister Danyliuk as a banal desire to avoid criminal liability for non-payment of taxes established by the State Fiscal Service, in the amount of UAH 746,343.84," Sarhan told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.
Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, in turn, told the LB.ua news outlet: "I consider his statement as a banal desire to avoid criminal responsibility ... The State Fiscal Service carried out a check and confirmed the non-payment of UAH 700,000 of taxes by Danyliuk. Danyliuk should either pay taxes or be imprisoned," Lutsenko said.
Earlier on December 21, Danyliuk accused the Prosecutor General's Office of hindering an investigation into the actions of former managers and owners of PrivatBank, initiating and actively promoting criminal cases against the incumbent officials of the bank.
"I demand the resignation of Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko," Danyliuk said at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.
Danyliuk said that it was possible to get a positive decision of the London court to freeze the assets of former PrivatBank owners Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov "not thanks to the support of the prosecutor's office, as it should have been, but despite all direct attempts by the Prosecutor General's Office to interfere with this process."
While commenting on his accusations, the minister recalled that the nationalized PrivatBank had initiated the opening of five criminal cases, which are now being investigated by the Prosecutor General's Office, in particular, on bringing the bank to insolvency, illegal withdrawal of funds from the bank in various ways, and improper use of confidential information from the bank's servers.
"However, none of these cases have been submitted to court for consideration, because pre-trial investigations in these proceedings are progressing very slowly, and in some cases, investigative actions are not conducted at all," Danyliuk said.
