The SSU, with the assistance of the Head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine Ruslan Kravchenko, shut down a criminal scheme in the fiscal service.

The Chief State Inspector of the Central Interregional Department of the State Tax Service was detained in Kyiv on a bribe of USD 20,000.

The official demanded this amount from the director of a private construction company in Chernihiv for a ‘positive’ tax audit.

In case he got the money, the inspector promised the entrepreneur to ‘cancel’ the commercial obligations to pay taxes to the state budget.

The SSU documented the receipt of the bribe by the tax officer and detained him when he got USD 13,000 of the illegal benefit.

Based on the evidence, the investigators served the perpetrator a notice of suspicion under Article 369-2.3 of the CCU (acceptance of an offer, promise or receipt of an unlawful benefit for oneself or a third party for influencing the decision-making of a person authorized to perform the functions of the state or local self-government, combined with extortion of such benefit).

The offence is punishable by 8 years in prison with confiscation of property.

The pre-trial investigation is underway. The operation was carried out under the procedural supervision of Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office.

According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of a crime and may not be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in line with the procedure defined by law and established by a court’s verdict.