Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine
Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities have served a new notice of suspicion on former Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Smirnov. He is accused of legalising illegally acquired funds and taking a bribe in a particularly large amount. This was reported by the press service of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.
According to the investigation, this is an additional qualification to the existing case of illegal enrichment in the amount of UAH 15.7 million, in which Smirnov was served with a notice of suspicion in May 2024.
Legalisation scheme and estates on the coast
In the period from 2019 to 2021, the investigation believes that the official illegally acquired significant cash. To “whitewash” their origin, he invested about UAH 6.5 million in the construction of private estates with a total area of more than 300 square metres in a recreational area of Odesa region. The land plot belonged to a company with whose beneficiary Smirnov entered into an informal agreement.
The houses were registered in the name of a company, and after the investigation approached the official, the property was re-registered to a trustee to conceal his true ownership.
100 thousand dollars for tender “assistance”
In 2022, Smirnov was approached by the owner of a construction company with a proposal to pay a bribe in kind – in the form of construction works and services worth USD 100,000. In exchange, he asked to facilitate the adoption of a decision by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine cancelling the results of a tender won by a competitor and to help the company win a new tender.
The former official agreed, used his official connections, and as a result, the AMCU made the “right” decision. The bribe was paid through the free-of-charge construction of a part of one of the buildings used by Smirnov himself.
The investigation is ongoing, and the suspect faces liability under several articles of the Criminal Code, including corruption crimes on a particularly large scale.
