18:52 19.11.2018

Ex-Interior Minister Zakharchenko, his entourage suspected of laundering UAH 10.3 bln through SmartBank

2 min read
Ex-Interior Minister Zakharchenko, his entourage suspected of laundering UAH 10.3 bln through SmartBank

Former Interior Minister of Ukraine Vitaliy Zakharchenko and his closest associates are suspected of laundering UAH 10.345 billion through SmartBank.

This is stated in the ruling of Kyiv's Pechersky District Court, which allows the investigator from the special investigations department of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine to get access to the documents of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) relating to SmartBank that are necessary for the investigation into the criminal proceedings.

The special investigations department of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine (PGO) is conducting a pretrial investigation into the criminal activity of Zakharchenko and his closest associates under Part 5 of Article 27 (types of accomplices), Part 5 of Article 368 (bribery), Part 3 of Article 209 (laundering money obtained by criminal means), Part 1 of Article 205 (fictitious business), and Part 3 of Article 222 (tax evasion) of the Criminal Code.

The PGO said the investigators have sufficient grounds to believe that SmartBank was created to cover illegal activities related to the provision and implementation of financial operations aimed at providing enterprises of the real sector of the economy with services for forming a technical tax credit for VAT, i.e. tax evasion, minimization of income, illegal conversion of non-cash money into cash, as well as for financial transactions aimed at laundering funds and property obtained by Zakharchenko and his associates through criminal means.

The Individuals' Deposit Guarantee Fund on May 25, 2016 introduced temporary administration at SmartBank, which was declared insolvent on the basis of non-transparency of the ownership structure.

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