Ukrainian authorities searched the home of former deputy defense minister Myroniuk and discovered dozens of money piles worth a total of 1 million USD in the sofa.
Ukrainian law enforcement officials on February 2 released a video of a search of the house in Myroniuk of former deputy defense minister Oleksandr Myroniuk.
In the video, an investigator is pulling out dozens of piles of money hidden under the sofa in the home of former deputy minister Myroniu. This amount of domestic and foreign currency with a total value of 1 million USD was piled up on the chair, including 17 million hryvnia (about 460,000 USD), 400,000 USD and more than 100,000 euros.
Former Deputy Defense Minister Myroniuk was in charge of the procurement department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine before being fired in 2021. He is being investigated for fraud in defense procurement contracts.
Sources familiar with the matter said Mr. Myroniuk claimed that the money hidden by the sofa was not his own, but borrowed money from an 86-year-old named Eleonora Duminsh, who lives in Kharkov.
Investigators found piles of money under the sofa at the home of former Deputy Defense Minister Oleksandr Myroniuk in Myroniuk. Video: Twitter/@ukrpravda_news.
Duminsh is a businessman related to the founder of HADO Holding, a company that manufactures rifles and other military equipment. The company has a business relationship with the procurement agency where former deputy minister Myroniu was in charge.
The court ultimately decided to return the money to Mr. Myroniu, who is working for Progress, a Ukrainian arms export company.
On February 1, the State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine (SBI) also announced the house search of Oksana Datii, acting head of the Kiev Tax Department, for alleged involvement in a tax corruption case worth up to $ 1.2 billion.
SBI agents searched three of Datii’s apartments in Kiev, seizing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, as well as watches and cars. In addition to three apartments totaling around $1 million, Datti also owns a $200,000 house in the suburbs and two cars that cost around $150,000. She is also accused of amassing many other assets, such as expensive jewelry and designer clothes, with a total value of about $1.4 million.
President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine was implementing “new reforms” that would make the country “more humane, transparent, and efficient”. Anti-corruption measures are an important part of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union (EU).
Ngoc Anh (Theo Ukrainska Pravda)