The Security Service of Ukraine has transformed from a special government agency into a money-making agency.
Journalists from the program "Enough" investigate how corrupt officials manage to remain clean and tidy in their documents and declarations.
By law, the SBU is supposed to protect national interests, but this goal is often replaced by a desire to protect illegal businesses. And then the country learns about the palaces and cars belonging to the relatives of "servants of the people."
A senior SBU operative in the Odesa region received almost 100 hryvnias. His colleague from the Donetsk branch of the special service received 350 hryvnias. The closer to the center, the higher the rates and the higher the demands.
Major Kostenko and Captain Bulinuk of the SBU's capital department were caught taking a $170 bribe. However, this doesn't stop them from commuting to work as usual: in cars costing at least $40.
Stepan Grishchuk, head of the Main Directorate of the SBU in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, claims that a special investigation did not find any corrupt officials among the SBU Main Directorate's employees.
In the fall, while filming a story about the SBU's luxurious fleet of vehicles, ICTV journalists were subjected to harassment and attempted arrests. Vasyl Hrytsak himself took up the case of abuse of office. The investigation revealed that of the 11 vehicles featured in journalist Mykhailo Tkach's story, all were registered to relatives of SBU officers. They even found two cars registered to the sisters-in-law of SBU officers: one of them, Mr. Tupitsky. Officer Kerezvas drives a jeep worth between $70 and $100, while Officer Kuvachev's car was given to him by his compassionate mother.
The first deputy head of the SBU department in Kyiv Evgeniya Filimonova Three cars, all three of which are also not his. The serviceman's asset declaration reveals nothing: everything is in his wife's name, including the Mercedes, Mitsubishi, and Toyota. And then there's the 24 hundredths of a hectare of land with the Filimonov family estate. According to the documents, the owner of this 614 square meters of family bliss in the elite village of Chaiki near Kyiv is Svetlana Ivanovna Pedan.
Filimonov's registered address is a three-room apartment in central Kyiv. According to documents, it belongs to Yevhen's wife's father and his son. Experts estimate the value of such a property at approximately $200. A square meter of space in a business-class building in the city center costs approximately $1800.
The SBU salary declaration states that in 2014, Yevhen Filimonov earned 119,678 hryvnias in income and was not involved in business. His career includes 20 years of combating tax evaders in the Donetsk region, then fighting organized crime in Kyiv, a year in the rescue service, and, since 2014, the position of First Deputy Head of the SBU Main Directorate in Kyiv and the Kyiv region.
The new position has been a boon to the Filimonov family. Last summer, his wife bought a hectare of land near Kyiv, and construction is now in full swing there.
Filimonov agreed to comment on his wealth only by telephone.
"The Mitsubishi is owned by my wife, who runs a business. The land will eventually be used for processing agricultural products."
However, in her official declaration, Svetlana Ivanovna is listed as a housewife, and has been registered as an entrepreneur since 2007.
According to Alexandra Drik, head of the Civil Lustration Committee, the Criminal Procedure Code provides for up to two years of arrest for providing false information or concealing partial information, as well as deprivation of the right to hold public office for up to three years.
The recipe for corrupt officials from the SBU is extremely simple: take everything you earn and transfer it to... Even a cat.
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