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Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) has published a video of a pension agency official lying on a bed of dollar bills, after he and his mother – also a senior government employee – were arrested with nearly $6 million in apparently illicit cash.
In a statement on Friday, the SBI said its agents raided the office of the head of the Khmelnitsky Regional Center of Medical and Social Expertise, as part of an investigation into the forging of fraudulent disability certificates allowing men to avoid military conscription.
The agents found $100,000 in US dollars in the office, along with lists of men with fictitious disabilities. A further search of properties belonging to the official and her son yielded more than $5.2 million in US dollars, €300,000 ($329,000), and more than 5 million Ukrainian hryvnia ($121,000).
Antikor, a Ukrainian anti-corruption NGO, named the medical official as Tatyana Krupa, a member of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s Servant of the People party. Her son was identified as Aleksandr, who heads the Khmelnitsky branch of the Ukrainian state pension agency.
“Law enforcement officers found money in almost every corner of [Krupa’s] apartment – in closets, drawers, niches,” the SBI stated, adding that “documents confirming the illegal activities of the officials and their money laundering through various business projects were also seized.”
In a video published by the SBI, Krupa’s son is seen lying on a bed next to what appears to be hundreds of thousands of dollars, euros, and hryvnia. It is unclear whether the money was found spread out on the bed, or whether SBI agents arranged the scene for dramatic effect.
During the raid, Krupa “tried to get rid of part of the money by throwing two bags with half a million dollars through the window,” the agency claimed.
According to the SBI, Krupa and her family own 30 properties in Khmelnitsky, Lviv, and Kiev, as well as real estate in Austria, Spain, and Türkiye.
The Krupa family also owns nine luxury cars and a hotel and restaurant complex, and have “accumulated” almost $2.3 million in foreign bank accounts. None of this wealth was mentioned in the asset declarations that Ukrainian government employees are required to complete.
The pair could be charged with fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, making false statements, and illegal enrichment, the SBI said, adding that they could face up to 12 years in prison.
Ukraine has long been considered one of the most corrupt countries in the world. According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, as of 2022, the country ranked 116th out of 180.
Embezzlement and graft have had disastrous consequences for the country’s military campaign against Russia. In May, Ukrainian anti-corruption activist Martina Boguslavets revealed that military personnel and civilians in Kharkov Region stole tens of millions of dollars intended for the construction of defensive fortifications, leaving the Russian military free to enter the region almost unopposed.
A similar scheme at the national level was uncovered a month later, with Ukrainian lawmaker Mikhail Bondar alleging that the amount stolen amounted to nearly $500 million.
