The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has finalized its comprehensive audit of the asset declaration submitted by Yuriy Berezhnyi, the acting president of the state-owned Black Sea Shipping Company. The investigation, which spanned from September 2025 to March 2026, uncovered false statements and hidden assets totaling 12.63 million UAH. The agency stated that the official’s actions show clear signs of a criminal offense.
According to the NACP press service, the case files have been prepared for law enforcement, pointing to violations under Part 2 of Article 366-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (submitting false declaration data).
The most significant discrepancy was found in the «Cash Assets» section. Berezhnyi declared holding 410,000 UAH and 161,000 USD in cash.
However, after tracking the family’s official income and expenses over the past 26 years (from 1998 to 2024), NACP analysts concluded that the couple could have legally saved significantly less—roughly 5.7 million UAH (approx. 135,500 USD). The difference between the declared cash and verifiable legal income amounted to 1.48 million UAH.
The audit highlighted that during 2024 alone, the family’s spending exceeded 5.1 million UAH. These funds went toward:
Purchasing a premium Lexus NX 350 SUV;
Funding the official’s daughter’s tuition in London;
Providing a substantial loan to a third party, alongside general living expenses.
Berezhnyi argued that the funds originated from past business activities, the sale of an older vehicle, and his wife’s cryptocurrency transactions. The NACP rejected these explanations due to a complete lack of supporting documentation.
Another massive block of violations involved concealed financial liabilities. The shipping executive failed to disclose that his wife had received an 11 million UAH loan from a private lender back in 2021.
NACP records show these funds were used to partially finance a land plot and a house in the Luhansk region valued at over 17 million UAH, purchase a car, and issue a 2.5 million UAH loan to an acquaintance.
«The official claimed he only learned about his wife’s multi-million loan agreement during the NACP audit. However, the agency dismissed this claim, noting that Berezhnyi had personally signed a written notarized consent allowing his wife to purchase the real estate using joint family funds,» the NACP stated.
Among other assets, Yuriy Berezhnyi declared 100 token-shares of the Expo R&M project (EXPO Shares Token), valued at 135,600 UAH. Following a technical review, the NACP classified the project as a financial pyramid scheme based on several factors:
Using the name of a legitimate bank to create false associations;
Operating a multi-level marketing (MLM) structure promising guaranteed high passive income;
The project has since collapsed, and its apps have been removed from both Google Play and the App Store.
Additionally, the state executive failed to declare his actual residence in his wife’s Kyiv apartment, hid an active account with the German bank Hamburger Sparkasse AG, and omitted the fact that family members hold residency permits for both the United Kingdom and Germany.
The NACP has officially notified Yuriy Berezhnyi of the investigation results and forwarded the findings to his employers and relevant law enforcement agencies.