The National Anti-Corruption Bureau on March 2 gave a notice of suspicion in a corruption case to Roman Nasirov, chief of the State Fiscal Service, during searches in his ward at Kyiv’s Feofania Hospital, the bureau’s spokeswoman Daria Manzhura told the Kyiv Post.
According to video footage of the events, Nasirov allegedly had a heart attack and was taken out of the hospital and transported to the emergency unit.
Nasirov is a suspect in an embezzlement case linked to state-controlled natural gas producer Ukrgazvydobuvannya and is accused of illegally allowing participants of the alleged corruption scheme to delay tax payments, Manzhura said.
Another suspect in the case is lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko, who fled Ukraine last year.
Investigative journalist Dmytro Gnap on March 2 cited Onyshchenko as saying last year that President Petro Poroshenko had told Nasirov to delay Onyshchenko’s mineral resource tax payments in order to enable him to fund Poroshenko’s political projects. Poroshenko has denied Onyshchenko’s allegations.
Nasirov is an ally of Poroshenko and his former chief of staff Boris Lozhkin.
Nasirov’s former deputy Kostyantyn Likarchuk and former Odesa Oblast customs chief Yulia Marushevska have accused Nasirov of large-scale corruption, which he denies.
Likarchuk has claimed that Nasirov was restoring corruption schemes linked to Igor Kaletnik, who was chief of the customs agency under ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, while ex-Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has accused Nasirov of running graft schemes jointly with lawmaker Vitaly Khomutynnyk, another former Yanukovych ally.
Nasirov’s fabulous wealth was revealed in the electronic declaration he filed last year. He declared land plots with an area of 283,093 square meters, as well as $1.16 million, 450,000 euros and Hr 4.35 million in cash. He and his wife also declared five apartments and three houses.
He had also been criticized for failing to declare two luxury apartments in London.
Kyiv Post staff writer Veronika Melkozerova contributed to this story.
