The Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office has reported a Ukrainian Instagram blogger suspected of committing intentional tax evasion on a particularly large scale, who is accused of failing to pay taxes in the amount of about 11.5 million hryvnias. According to the department, in the period 2018–2022, the suspect, registered as an individual entrepreneur, received income totaling more than 58 million hryvnias, but taxes on these revenues were not paid, as a result of which the budget received 10.5 million hryvnias less in income tax and almost 900 thousand hryvnias in military levy. NV +1
The investigation is being conducted by the Bureau of Economic Security based on materials, in particular, financial monitoring, and the suspicion was announced in absentia due to the fact that the investigation established that the suspect is currently abroad. The departments also referred to a number of facts regarding the nature of the income received and the lack of proper tax deductions. RBC-Ukraine +1
The blogger promptly responded to the publications and recorded a video message in which she called the report of suspicion a "politicized media attack" and an attempt to discredit her. She stated that during her stay in Ukraine she was officially operating as a third-group individual entrepreneur and did not receive any claims from the fiscal authorities, and her individual entrepreneur was allegedly closed in early 2023, which, according to her, is impossible to do without repaying all obligations. The blogger also reported that her bank accounts and access to the state application were blocked in 2022.
Public materials from the prosecutor's office and other media outlets add that the investigation also includes references to the behavior of a public figure in the first days of the full-scale invasion and her public statements, which the investigation considers relevant to the context of the case; these publications are cited as part of the investigators' general argument for opening proceedings. At the same time, until the completion of the pre-trial investigation and the issuance of a court decision, all facts remain subject to verification, and any final conclusions should be made only by the court.
So far, the case is gaining public resonance: some media outlets are working with information from the prosecutor's office's press service, while others are paying attention to the blogger's words and demanding that law enforcement agencies publish the documentary grounds for suspicion as soon as possible. Lawyers remind that during the investigation, the defendant is guaranteed the right to defense and to present evidence in her favor, and journalists have the obligation to cover both the investigation's position and the suspect's position in a balanced manner.
How the case will develop further depends on the results of the pre-trial investigation and the procedural work of the parties. If the prosecutor's office or the BEB publish additional materials or the blogger provides documents refuting the allegations, this data will appear in open registers and official reports. In the meantime, two lines are merging in the public field — the official accusations of law enforcement officers and Stuzhuk's insistence on her legal innocence, so the final point in this story will be put by the court.
