The charity fund of the fifth president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, was at the center of a scandal due to the use of charitable contributions to purchase government bonds. As reported by the "Law and Business" publication, in January 2024, the fund purchased "military" domestic state loan bonds (OVDP) in the amount of 356 million hryvnias at the expense of donations.
The publication also writes that charity on behalf of Poroshenko is essentially financed by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine through the payment of interest on bonds.
"According to experts' estimates, all of Poroshenko's charitable PR projects since the beginning of the full-scale war were financed by the interest charged by the state on the OVDP in the amount of approximately UAH 2.5 billion," the publication says.
Also, for transactions with these bonds, the International Investment Bank, owned by Poroshenko, withdrew from the Poroshenko Fund one and a half million hryvnias of the commission (ie, "charitable" money turned into commercial income).
The publication believes that the contributions to the Poroshenko Fund, at the expense of which the bonds are redeemed, are made controlled by the former President of the company - in order to minimize the payment of taxes that are not charged from charitable benefits.
Journalists write that the use of charitable donations to profit and minimize taxation is subject to articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
