The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) have announced suspicion against Serhiy Bilan, the former First Deputy Head of the State Fiscal Service (SFS). He is accused of abuse of office, which led to multi-million losses for the state budget.
This was reported by the Absolution detective agency.
As the investigation established, in June 2017, Bilan, while serving as First Deputy Head of the State Fiscal Service, acting in the interests of a separate business entity, intentionally failed to sign the decision based on the results of considering a taxpayer's complaint within the specified time. This complaint concerned tax notices-decisions adopted by territorial bodies of the State Fiscal Service.
According to the norms of the Tax Code of Ukraine, if the authorized person does not make a decision within the established period, the complaint is automatically satisfied in favor of the taxpayer. Thus, due to Bilan's inaction, the state lost the right to demand payment of taxes and penalties in the amount of more than 641 million hryvnias.
At the same time, according to the investigation, the former official deliberately created the appearance of the impossibility of signing the relevant decision in order to hide his actions.
Bilan's role in this process was key, as he was the only person in the State Fiscal Service authorized to make decisions based on the results of considering taxpayer complaints. His actions directly led to the country's budget being shortchanged by hundreds of millions of hryvnias.
NABU and SAPO qualified the actions of the former official under Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (abuse of power or official position, which caused grave consequences).
The Supreme Anti-Corruption Court (SAC) considered the motion of law enforcement officers and chose a preventive measure in the form of bail for Serhiy Bilan. The court ruled to recover almost 10 million hryvnias from the suspect.
The investigation is currently ongoing, and anti-corruption authorities continue to establish all the details of the scheme and possible accomplices to this offense.
We remind you that the former head of the Gas Transportation System Operator of Ukraine (GTS Operator), who had previously traveled abroad, was notified of suspicion in the case of causing over UAH 18 billion in losses to the state budget.
