Sergii Leshchenko, a reformist lawmaker from President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc, has come under fire in recent days for buying a 192-square meter apartment worth Hr 7.5 million ($281,000) in downtown Kyiv on Aug. 24.
Supporters of Poroshenko and the People’s Front party have launched an attack on Leshchenko, claiming he violated both ethical principles and the law.
Leshchenko denies the accusations, saying that they are a reprisal for his exposure of corruption among allies of Poroshenko, People’s Front leaders and others.
“I hope you understand that these attacks are a payback for my anti-corruption activities against anyone regardless of their names and positions,” he said on Facebook on Sept. 6.
Vladimir Fedorin, former editor of Forbes Ukraine, compared the attacks to Russian propagandists’ efforts to show that the opposition is as corrupt as the authorities.
“The witch hunt against Leshchenko reminds me of Russia in 2000s to 2003 when (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s propaganda used similar half-wits to bring home a simple idea: Everyone is the same,” Fedorin wrote on Facebook on Nov. 9. “All of us know that this campaign was a success. Are you sure you want to live in Russia?”
The anti-Leshchenko campaign comes as the National Anti-Corruption Bureau is investigating graft cases against Poroshenko’s grey cardinals Ihor Kononenko and Oleksandr Hranovsky, Interior Minister and People’s Front heavyweight Arsen Avakov, as well as ex-People’s Front lawmaker Mykola Martynenko. Last month a Kyiv court authorized wiretapping Avakov’s phone calls in a corruption case involving backpack supplies to his ministry.
As the scandal escalated, Leshchenko said on Sept. 7 he was suspending his membership in the liberal Democratic Alliance party’s management board until the accusations are fully investigated.
He urged the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the National Agency for Preventing Corruption to examine the claims. Nazar Kholodnytsky, Ukraine’s chief anti-corruption prosecutor, said then that the anti-graft agencies would look into the matter.
Leshchenko said half of the money used to purchase the apartment had been financed with a 10-year loan from Olena Prytula, the Ukrainska Pravda online newspaper’s main shareholder.
The other half comes from his income, including that earned by him as a former shareholder of Ukrainska Pravda, and money earned by his girlfriend Anastasia Topolskaya, Leshchenko said.
Topolskaya is one of Eastern Europe’s most well-paid DJs.
She told ICTV television on Sept. 7 she earned 3,000 to 7,000 euros per set, prompting Leshchenko’s critics to say that she indicated much smaller amounts in her tax returns. Based on her performance schedule, she is expected to earn 58,000 euros to 203,000 euros in September through December, ICTV reported.
Espresso TV, a television channel linked to the People’s Front, on Sept. 7 published Leshchenko’s alleged tax returns. Such information is confidential and leaking it is a crime.
The channel reported that Leshchenko, Topolskaya and Prytula had earned Hr 1.78 million, Hr 254,405 and Hr 4.76 million, respectively – or a total of Hr 6.79 million ($255,000) – in 1998 to 2016.
Espresso said that the entire amount was not enough to cover the price of the $281,000 apartment.
Leshchenko said, however, that the report was a manipulation because it was based on current exchange rates, rather than historic ones, and took into account only his personal tax returns, not his returns as an entrepreneur.
Based on historic exchange rates and taking into account Leshchenko’s business income, Leshchenko, Topolskaya and Prytula had earned $560,000, $24,650 and $1.38 million, respectively – or a total of $1.86 million, which is more than enough to buy a $281,000 apartment, Hromadske television calculated on Sept. 8.
In addition, Leshchenko said he had earned 50,000 euros and $30,000 abroad in the period, which is included in his declarations.
Leshchenko’s critics have also accused him of violating anti-corruption law by allegedly taking out Prytula’s loan on non-market terms and buying the apartment at a below-market price.
The lawmaker denied the accusations, saying the deals fully complied with anti-corruption law. He did not tell the Kyiv Post what the terms of the loan were, saying it was up to the anti-corruption agencies to analyze this information.
Dmytro Kotlyar, a co-author of the 2014 anti-corruption law, and lawyer Leonid Antonenko said on Facebook on Sept. 7 that cash loans from a friend – presumably like the one given to Leshchenko by Prytula – did not formally violate the law. Antonenko said, however, that regardless of whether Leshchenko’s deal was honest, cash loans were a loophole that could be used by corrupt officials to legalize ill-gotten revenues.
