Asset declaration of Presidential Office official reveals huge earnings from Slovak rental property.
The March 2022 asset declaration of Oleh Tatarov, the deputy head of Ukraine's Presidential Office, shows that his partner earned over 10 times more income than him by renting out property in Slovakia, Ukrainska Pravda reported on Dec.
11. Tatarov, a top member of President Volodymyr Zelensky's administration whose role is to oversee law enforcement, was previously charged with bribery. The charges were dropped in December 2022 because the deadline for investigation had expired.
As the case was ongoing, it was often disrupted by high-level attempts to sweep it under the rug, while Zelensky never suspended Tatarov. The asset declaration states that while Tatarov received a salary of Hr 500,000 (£13,500) from the state in 2022, his partner Tetiana earned Hr 7 million (£189,600) from "business activities." The asset declaration also shows that Tatarov has more than 320,000 euros (£345,000) in bank savings accounts, £400,000 in cash, Hr 5.4 million in cash (£146,000), and Hr 5.1 million (£138,000) in "other unknown assets."
Ukrainian investigative outlet Bihus.Info reported in March 2023 that Oleh and Tetiana may have officially divorced to preserve their assets. Top officials in Ukraine are required to declare their assets an anti-corruption measure. An investigation by Ukrainska Pravda on Nov.
29 revealed that Tatarov rents a 600-square-meter villa outside Kyiv from a person allegedly linked to businessmen connected to Russia-backed runaway ex-president Viktor Yanukovych. The system of compulsory asset declarations was originally instituted as part of the country's fight against corruption following the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution. The system was suspended at the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Zelensky signed a law in October 2023 to resume asset declarations for officials and immediately make them publicly accessible. Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) announced the opening of a publicly accessible register on Dec.
10, allowing Ukrainians to submit and review property declarations of public servants.
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