The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine or NABU announced on Sept. 13 that it had filed a notice of suspicion against Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan.
The minister is suspected of embezzlement and filing inaccurate information in his asset declaration. The minister denies the charges.
Vitaliy Shabunin, the head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, says that this might be the first case in Ukraine’s history of an incumbent minister being served a notice of suspicion.
NABU is currently deciding on whether the minister should be detained.
If found guilty, Omelyan faces from five to 10 years in prison on the first charge, and a fine of up to Hr 51,000 ($1,814) or two years in prison on the second.
Omelyan, 39, has served as the infrastructure minister since 2016. He worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economy and other Ukrainian ministries for a total of 17 years.
Anti-corruption detectives have been investigating Omelyan’s case since May 2017.
The NABU served the notice of suspicion to Omelyan on Sept. 13 after the approval of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine.
Omelyan is suspected of embezzlement, as, according to the NABU, since he became an official in 2000 until April 26, 2018, he earned Hr 2.17 million ($77,170), while his expenses in 2008-2015 alone were Hr 3.45 million ($122,700).
The anti-corruption detectives also claim that while serving as the deputy infrastructure minister in 2015, Omelyan “has acquired the assets, the legitimacy of which is not supported by evidence, and the value of which significantly exceeds his legal income.”
Among those assets, the NABU named a BMW X5 car made in 2015 that the minister used, and sums of $90,000 and 25,000 euros in cash.
In a Facebook post on his page, Omelyan says that he doesn’t own the car – it belongs to his brother.
NABU detectives also said Omelyan had filed false information in his 2015 and 2016 asset declarations.
According to the NABU, the infrastructure minister failed to declare expenses of over Hr 3 million ($106,690) in 2015 and over Hr 8 million ($284,500) the year after that.
He also failed to declare expenses on renting houses that he lived in along with his family in 2015 and 2016, the NABU said.
Omelyan said the anti-corruption detectives had started the investigation against him after he along with other ministers and lawmakers bail out on their personal guarantee former People’s Front Party lawmaker Mykola Martynenko in April 2017.
Martynenko was suspected of embezzling money from a state enterprise. The legal proceedings against him were also started by the NABU.
