On 1 and 2 July, officers from the Economic Security Bureau (ESB) carried out searches on the premises of a steelworks in Brovary as part of an investigation into systematic tax evasion. According to the investigation, Roman Yaroshenko, a current member of the Kyiv City Council, former councillor Andriy Zayets, and businessmen Vyacheslav and Oleksandr Suprunenko may be involved in the scheme.
The searches covered a number of companies linked to former and current politicians in the capital. However, despite widespread media coverage, the Economic Security Bureau itself has not yet officially commented on the investigative actions, which has raised questions among the public regarding the progress of the investigation.
“Some law enforcement officers and prosecutors may be more interested in reaching plea deals than in seeing the criminal proceedings through to a conclusion in court,” note sources familiar with the situation.
Experts point out that the current case of tax evasion is merely part of a wider story. The origins of the accumulation of assets surrounding this metallurgical complex date back to the time when Leonid Chernovetskyi was mayor of Kyiv. It was then that a significant portion of the capital’s municipal property passed into private hands through dubious schemes.
Despite the passage of time since these past events and the new investigations by the Bureau of Economic Security, certain individuals implicated in the case still retain political influence and continue to serve on the Kyiv City Council.