The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NACP) has started checking the declarations and lifestyle of the acting deputy head of the State Tax Service (SST) Oleksandr Sokur. The reason was the opening of a flower business by his roommate, Alina Lebedeva, three months after Sokur's appointment to a high position.
The co-resident of the NAKC checks the declaration and lifestyle of the acting deputy head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine and his roommate , acting deputy head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine, Alina Lebedeva, opened a business less than three months after his appointment. Already after a year of working at the FOP, the 27-year-old girl opened a flower boutique in the very center of Kyiv in the "Leonardo" shopping center.
Earlier, Yevgeny Sokur, during the investigation into the case of an alleged attempt on him, himself told the law enforcement officers that since 2016 he has been living with a girl named Alina in an apartment on Lobanovskyi Avenue, 6-D. However, in his declarations, Sokur never mentioned his roommate. After the parliamentary appeal of Nina Yuzhanina, a member of the Verkhovna Rada's Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, the NAZK started an investigation into Yevgeny Sokur. The Agency also confirmed that they monitor the official's lifestyle. The head of the Public Council at the NAZK, Kateryna Butko, noted that the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption is checking whether Sokur lived together with his roommate Alina.
It turned out that it was about Alina Lebedeva. According to the former People's Deputy Ihor Mosiychuk, NAZC sent a request to Ukrainian banks as part of monitoring the lifestyle of Yevgeny Sokur, in which it asks financial institutions to provide information about the accounts of Alina Lebedeva, her parents and her brother. Also, NAZK wants to check the FOP accounts of Sokur's roommate.
As indicated in the Youcontrol system, Alina Lebedeva registered the FOP on August 3, 2022. The main line of business is retailing of flowers, plants, seeds, fertilizers, pets and feed for them in specialized stores.
It is worth noting that Sokur received a senior position in the tax office less than three months before - in May 2022. Coincidence?
However, the story of the breakthrough success of Sokura's roommate just began. In the first year of her business, and at the same time the first and, perhaps, the most difficult year of the full-scale war in Ukraine, things were going so well for Alina Lebedeva that she decided to expand.
On her birthday, November 1, 2023, she announced the opening of a flower boutique, and not anywhere else, but in the very heart of the capital - in the business center "Leonardo".
"Greetings. I'm @lebedieva_alina and yesterday was my birthday. And yesterday my long-awaited baby @lebedeva.flower.aesthetic was born. I created this space with love for flowers and people. Therefore, we will be happy to fulfill your most cherished flower dreams. To order beauty:
-Direct - BC Leonardo: Kyiv, str. 19-21 Bohdan Khmelnytskyi St.," Alina Lebedeva reported on the boutique's Instagram page.
It looks as if someone gave a gift to his girlfriend for the holiday.
By the way, during the study of Yevgeny Sokur's declarations, it was found that in 2022 he declared income from the sale of securities in the amount of UAH 2.6 million, but these funds were not reflected in his declaration for 2023. This may indicate a violation of legislation that requires reporting significant changes in property status. According to Art. 52 of the Law of Ukraine "On Prevention of Corruption", the declarant is obliged to report such changes within 10 days. Nina Yuzhanina sent the relevant information to the NACP.
But 80 thousand dollars in cash appeared in his declaration. Someone may say that he exchanged hryvnias for dollars, but it is worth remembering that at that time the ban of the National Bank on the purchase of foreign currency was in effect. So which of the laws Sokur probably violated is still an open question.
But let's return to Alina's success story. According to Serhii Dorotich, head of the #SaveFOP Movement, running a flower business is not easy and it will be really profitable only if there are VIP clients.
"I will simply explain the essence of the flower business, it is very specific, I know it directly, because my friends rented certain premises from me, and now they even rent and run this flower business. As they said, you can invest as much money as you want, be, as they say, extremely talkative and agile, but you will not succeed if you only have average customers who, you know, go there to buy their wife some flowers for March 8 or on a birthday - this business does not take off at all. You must have clients who pay you by cashless account and order bouquets of 100 roses and so on. That is, it is the Cabinet of Ministers, it is a government organization, deputies. If you have a way out for this, then this business will flourish," said Dorotych.
According to him, even before the full-scale invasion, creating a working profitable business in this area was a challenge. You need to have clients, such serious clients, and that's the only way to make money.
"Of course, if Mr. Sokur has brought in clients, then you can make money (on the boutique - ed.), and make money very quickly," said Dorotych.
However, he does not rule out that the breakthrough success of Sokura's roommate may be related to another very interesting aspect. "But this business can also be used to legalize certain funds. You can order a bouquet, pay and order, but not pick up the bouquet. If it is, accordingly, a simplistic person, driven away by a budget organization, they do not care about VAT. Losses will be 5-6%. They converted it into cash and that's it," said Dorotych.
However, if you look at the situation from this angle, the question arises: who should check the purity of the FOP operations of the roommate of one of the country's main tax collectors? Tax?
Lawyer Oleksiy Baganets said that, of course, Sokur can choose who to live with and marry. However, in his declaration, he is obliged to indicate data about the person with whom he has a common life.
"When filling out the declaration, he is obliged to indicate what income he had and has, even his common-law wife. Why? Because this is joint farming. It, of course, assumes that he must show the income of his common-law wife. This is clear," the lawyer emphasized.
According to him, NAKC should carefully study this situation, including for the presence of a conflict of interests. After all, in the course of the inspection, a question may arise regarding the expediency of Sokur's further stay in office.
Sokur is being investigated for official misconduct. This case was opened by the SBI on November 4, 2022 under part. 3 Art. 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, due to the fact of exceeding official authority by Sokur, who on October 26, 2022 signed the order to cancel the license of PJSC "Ukrtatnafta" for the production of fuel. Such actions of the official, according to the investigation, caused severe consequences for the society, as well as for the state in the form of the impossibility of fulfilling the mobilization tasks of the Ministry of Defense for the production and supply of oil products for the needs of defense and defense capability of the state. The State Bureau of Investigation reported that this criminal proceeding is still under investigation.
