The National Agency for Preventing Corruption (NAPC) has found that former lawmaker Oleh Lyashko could have committed a crime by submitting incorrect information in his 2017 asset declaration about winning sports bets, Kateryna Kapliuk, an aide to NAPC Chief Oleksandr Novikov, wrote on Facebook on April 6.
Together with the Facebook post, she published a link to the NAPC decision made in September 2019 about Lyashko’s declaration. Materials on Lyashko were sent to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, which had been investigating a case into Lyashko’s asset declaration since 2018.
In the 2017 declaration, Lyashko, the leader of the populist Radical Party, claimed he had won sports bets worth Hr 571,000 ($21,000) from Favorite Sport, a subsidiary of the Ukrainian National Lottery, and submitted alleged receipts for the money.
The Ukrainian National Lottery said that Lyashko had not received any money from it and said it had not issued such receipts, according to the NAPC.
Ukrainian National Lottery declined to comment to the Kyiv Post, while Favorite Sport did not respond to a request for comment.
“I keep all the checks for winning bets during football matches,” Lyashko told the Kyiv Post. “And the firms that received money for bets should pay taxes instead of lowering or hiding income from bets from the tax authorities.”
He added that he had filed a tax evasion complaint against Ukrainian National Lottery.
The NAPC also concluded that Lyashko had lied in his declaration about his real estate, land, Mercedes car and securities. Lyashko denied the accusations.
Meanwhile, Lyashko has filed a lawsuit to cancel the results of the NAPC audit.
The NABU had also investigated an illicit enrichment case against Lyashko, but the case was closed when the Constitutional Court canceled the illicit enrichment law in February 2019.
Known for his booming voice and belligerent approach to politics, Lyashko was a member of the Verkhovna Rada from 2006 to 2019. He led his own Radical Party faction from 2014 to 2019.
He is famous for populist stunts like eating Ukrainian soil and kissing cows on camera.
