The National Agency for Corruption Prevention has begun checking the declarations of Vladyslav Selezny, head of the Main Department of the State Tax Service in Kharkiv region. His official income does not match the luxurious lifestyle that the official's family demonstrates on social networks.
Selezen has been working in the tax system for over ten years, from the district inspectorate to management positions. His monthly salary ranges from 15,000 to 20,000 hryvnias, but his real level of well-being looks completely different. In his tax returns, he has houses, land plots, SUVs, and dollar savings. In real life, he travels around Europe, goes shopping abroad, and lives lavishly.
His wife Natalia is officially unemployed, but regularly declares cash in dollars, which either disappear or return to the accounts without explanation. The taxman's son, a student at the Kharkiv University of Radio Electronics, received a Ford Mustang for his 18th birthday.
In 2019, the Selezny family purchased a house and two plots of land. At the same time, Vladyslav's annual income was only 180 thousand hryvnias. In the same year, his wife sold two apartments and a car, and a few weeks later bought a new SUV - a Toyota Highlander.
But the most indignant was the information that the Selezny family received state assistance for internally displaced persons. Nataliya registered as an IDP, indicating her place of residence in the Kharkiv region, and received 48 thousand hryvnias in assistance. At the same time, she was in London, where, according to sources, the family was trying to obtain political asylum. Vladislav (16 thousand hryvnias) and their son (20 thousand hryvnias) received similar payments.
In fact, the family, who lived abroad, used benefits intended for displaced persons who lost their homes due to the war.
In addition, Selezny's close acquaintances, Podsokha's mother and daughter, work in the Kharkiv tax department under his leadership. This creates an obvious conflict of interest and emphasizes the "family" nature of personnel policy.
Houses, expensive cars, cash dollars, a London shelter, and “assistance to displaced persons” are all parts of the same survival scheme of Ukrainian officials “on one salary.”
The NACP has already started checking Vladyslav Selezny's declarations, but only time will tell whether this story will have real consequences. While Ukrainian immigrants are counting their pennies, Kharkiv tax officials are comfortably "going through the war" abroad.
