Demchenko Vyacheslav Vadymovych
Official biography
Acting Head of the State Customs Service of Ukraine.
Viacheslav Demchenko was born on November 07, 1975 in Zhytomyr. He graduated from the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Academy of Border Troops of Ukraine. Bohdan Khmelnytsky Border Guard Academy. He received his second degree at the National Academy of the Security Service of Ukraine. Today he lives in Kyiv. Career Since 1994, Viacheslav Demchenko served for a year in the Border Troops of Ukraine.
From 1995 to 1999, Demchenko was a cadet at the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Academy of the Border Troops of Ukraine. Bohdan Khmelnytsky Academy. Since 1999, he has served as an officer in the Border Troops of Ukraine and since 2003 — in the Administration of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
During his military service, he was promoted from private to the Head of the Intelligence Department of the Administration of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
On October 20, 2020, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi promoted Demchenko to the rank of brigadier general. On November 3, 2021, Zelenskyi dismissed Viacheslav Demchenko from the post of Head of the Intelligence Department of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
Also, in November 2021, Demchenko started working at the State Border Guard Service as Director of the Department for Combating Smuggling and Customs Violations. By the Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of November 4, 2021, Demchenko was entrusted with the duties of the Head of the State Customs Service of Ukraine.
Family
Wife — Natalia
Son — Denys.
Dirt on Demchenko
Corrupt officials and smugglers in the service of the acting head of the State Customs Service of Ukraine, Viacheslav Demchenko.
In a few months, Rivne Customs has become a leader in corruption and human resources scandals that are heard not only on the sidelines of the Customs Service, but also in the offices of the executive and legislative branches of government. And all thanks to the acting Head of the State Customs Service V. Demchenko.
His protégé, acting head of Rivne Customs Taras Kovalenko, is a person involved in a corruption offense registered by the SFS in Rivne region of the State Investigation Service of Ukraine, but Mr. Head of the State Customs Service does not care about this. He also doesn’t care that Kovalenko is in close contact with smuggling groups of influence that lobbied for his appointment. By these actions, Vyacheslav Demchenko ignores all the instructions given to him during his appointment to such a high position by the top officials of the state to fight any manifestations of corruption and «smuggling». He also doesn’t care that at a meeting at the National Security and Defense Council chaired by Secretary Oleksiy Danilov, he was clearly told that it was inadmissible to appoint people who had tarnished the honor of the uniform with their actions.
The personnel Demchenko appointed are full of immorality and greed for money:
We present to your attention only a small part of the facts from the National Police about the corrupt official in uniform, acting head of the Rivne customs Taras Kovalenko:
Documents published by the telegram channel «State Customs Service»:
HAS NOT WORKED FOR A YEAR: Head of Volyn Customs Resigns
The head of the Volyn Customs of the State Customs Service of Ukraine, Artem Huz, has written a letter of resignation. He was appointed head of the customs office in June 2021.
Prior to that, Artem Guz served as Deputy Head of the Department — Head of the First Division of the Economic Crime Department of the Main Department for Combating Economic Offenses of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine. He also worked for the Security Service of Ukraine.
According to the State Customs Service telegram channel, the acting head of the State Customs Service, Vyacheslav Demchenko, wants “his own man” to run the customs office in Volyn.
The case involves a well-known businessman in Volyn, Mykhailo Smolka, who is linked to smuggling through Volyn customs. The latter allegedly did not find a common language with Artem Huz, and therefore does not receive enough income.
Mykola Tatarchuk is said to be a candidate for the post of head of Volyn customs. He was promised the post if he helps to identify violations that could lead to the dismissal of Artem Huz.
Demchenko also illegally dismissed an ATO/JFO veteran, as reported by the same telegram channel “State Customs Service”:
Published documents:
The new head of the Ukrainian customs service lives in a small office apartment
The acting head of the State Customs Service of Ukraine, Viacheslav Demchenko, lives in a small office apartment in Kyiv and does not have his own home. This became known to 368.media from his declaration.
According to the document, Demchenko has been living in a 32.7-square-meter office apartment in Kyiv since 2019.
Since 2018, he has owned a land plot in the village of Melnyky, Chyhyryn district, with an area of 19.9 thousand square meters. He has also owned a 24-square-meter garage in Zhytomyr since 2008.
Viacheslav Demchenko owns two cars VAZ 2101 (1976) and Renault Megane (2010). He bought the latter in 2019 allegedly for UAH 20 thousand, although the market value of such a car is between UAH 140 and 240 thousand.
As head of the military unit 2451 in Kyiv, Demchenko earned UAH 1.43 million in 2020. His wife, Natalia Demchenko, received 154 thousand hryvnias in salary at the 1467th military hospital.
Viacheslav Demchenko has UAH 913 thousand in savings.
Customs takes the good: how customs officers profit from smuggling during the war
Despite wartime, there are people in the country who live by the principle “To some, war is a mother’s love”. And these people work at the Ukrainian customs.
The article is about how some customs officers fill their pockets with smuggling.
In an interview with a Ukrainian publication, Mr. Demchenko said that he was ready to fight smuggling at customs, and moreover, he even knew how to do it. “Smuggling is an old phenomenon that affects the whole world. Yes, we are now clearly dealing with this issue. I am currently studying the experience of other countries,” said Vyacheslav Demchenko. One of the ways to fight smuggling, the chief customs officer said, is to upgrade the staff. And it is with this that Demchenko has had problems.
Before Demchenko’s appointment, the online publication Krayina reported in its telegram channel that he was a protégé of Vadym Slyusarev, a member of the Servant of the People party. The State Border Guard Service, where Demchenko worked, denied this insight, calling it nonsense. By the way, Slyusarev left for the aggressor country on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has not returned.
Now, as for Vyacheslav Demchenko’s personnel policy. Let’s take Volyn region, for example. Mykola Tatarchuk is the head of the Volyn Customs. They say that he got his position only because he and the head of the customs studied at the same educational institution.
In other words, it is not the qualifications of the individual that are important here, but rather the trusting relationship, since a trusted person could successfully establish smuggling flows.
An example is the recent case of Russian caviar, which was planned to be allowed in under the guise of humanitarian aid. Nikolai Tatarchuk is considered a very weak leader who cannot make a firm managerial decision. Tatarchuk recruited Dmytro Khomych to his team. He is a former inspector of the Volyn customs office who has neither experience nor relevant knowledge. But Tatarchuk appointed him to the position of deputy head of Volyn customs and assigned him control over customs posts.
According to some sources, Khomych successfully took over the Yahodyn customs post. That is, he has put his own person in charge of each shift, who actually makes the decision to allow smuggling. For example, the second shift supervisor, Ihor Liashuk, an inspector at the Ustyluh customs post, is Khomych’s godfather. The first shift supervisor is a neighbor. Khomych knows the region and the key smugglers. In addition, he is the son-in-law of the former head of the Volyn regional police, General Petro Shpyh.
The next interesting appointment is Mykola Khursiak. He is the head of the anti-smuggling department. He is known for the fact that the whole family is engaged in the meat business, namely the import of meat products at low prices.
Khursiak himself does not hesitate to drive a BMW 5 to work, despite the fact that the customs officer’s salary is very modest.
Today, Tatarchuk’s so-called team, realizing its impunity, has started working at full speed, covering smuggling in large cars (TIR). For one such car, customs officers ask smugglers for 30 to 35 thousand US dollars, depending on the goods. Small cars weighing up to 5 tons are out of the question — they are a drop in the bucket.
During the time Tatarchuk’s team worked, the scheme of importing Polish food and various consumer goods under the guise of humanitarian aid quickly became operational. A new tariff for a cubic meter was quickly established, which is 300 USD and for food 10 UAH per kilogram. While everyone is busy with the war and supporting the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the team has been working at full capacity.
Cargo with counterfeit cigarettes at Volyn customs:
The Telegram channel «State Customs Service» published photos of documents and provided video evidence of another cigarette scheme at the ill-fated Volyn customs:
Documents:
Video of the smuggled cargo:
And here the question arises to Mr. Demchenko, did he start checking these facts and inform the relevant law enforcement agencies? Although this question may be superfluous. Demchenko is probably very well aware of the work of his protege.
It should be added that these schemes do not work without border guards, who are side by side with customs officers every day. It’s simple: they will turn a blind eye to 20 percent of illegal behavior. War is war, but you need to pay for something to fuel expensive cars and maintain large estates.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, salaries for customs officials have almost doubled
The agency announced the amount of payments to Demchenko and his deputies since the beginning of the war.
Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the salaries of the leadership of the State Customs Service have almost doubled. This was reported to Ukrainian News by the service.
According to the document, in February, the acting head of the Customs Service, Vyacheslav Demchenko, received a salary of UAH 54.8 thousand, and in April — UAH 91.2 thousand.
At the same time, his deputies were paid between UAH 36,000 and 65,000 in February, and between UAH 92,000 and 113,000 in April.
Prior to that, Finance Minister Sergiy Marchenko said that in March, budget revenues from the customs service dropped by 80%. According to him, the customs service brought in only UAH 7 billion instead of the UAH 39 billion that was planned.
At the same time, in March 2021, the service transferred UAH 34 billion to the state budget.
Vyacheslav Demchenko and Ruslan Cherkasky: looting customs officers or high-level collaborators?
Oleksandr Kovalchuk — did his “servant” MP promote looters and collaborators to top positions in the customs service?
On May 2, the head of the Rivne Customs, Andriy Kuznyk, was forcibly sent on vacation. This decision was made by the acting head of the State Customs Service Vyacheslav Demchenko at the request of his deputy Ruslan Cherkasky and MP Oleksandr Kovalchuk.
The customs is headed by Roman Pryharsky, who is a confidant and godfather of well-known local cashiers of the same MP Kovalchuk — the head of the still unliquidated Polissya customs, Serhiy Panchuk, and his first deputy, Ivan Ivanov. This criminal group immediately instructed the heads of the customs posts, Oleksandr Hlivchuk and Vasyl Latysh, and Pryharsky himself, to collect bribes from car importers for January-March of this year — $200 and $100 for each car registered to a legal entity and an individual, respectively, and $50 for the period of the current “zero customs clearance”.
Since the beginning of the year, Rivne Customs has cleared about 15,000 cars, so officials expect to collect more than $2 million in criminal money. In order to immediately curb all those who disagree with paying tribute to customs officers, Dmytro Pidlasyi, an old acquaintance of Ivanov’s who likes to take bribes, is being promoted to the post of deputy head of customs in charge of the anti-smuggling unit.
At a time when ordinary Ukrainians are pulling their last pennies out of their pockets to help the Armed Forces, this group of people has done… nothing to win! Although what can be expected from these characters. Journalists of leading TV channels and publications have been talking about Hlivchuk, Latysh, Pryharsky, Ivanov, Panchuk and Kovalchuk, who were caught on bribes, for years now. In addition, the above-mentioned persons may be collaborators.
Let us explain. For years, a kind of mini-Vladimir Putin-Medvedev has been coexisting at Rivne Customs: a tandem of successive heads, Serhiy Panchuk and Ivan Ivanov. The secret of their successful cooperation and impunity is very simple: they know who to share with.
Panchuk divides the share of money entrusted to him between his patrons, his servant MP Kovalchuk and the deputy head of the State Customs Service Ruslan Cherkasky, a former Yanukovych-era official, a schemer with millions of dollars and his brother, a DNR official.
Ivan Ivanov (another Yanukovych-era character with a million-dollar fortune in bitcoins and a civilian wife from the L/DNR) took his suitcase of dollars directly to the traitor Andriy Naumov before the war.
It is useless to ask the head of the customs office, Vyacheslav Demchenko, about what is happening, given the rumors about his patron Slyusarev and the already announced facts of covering corruption with blood.
The Rada recognizes the work of the Customs as “unsatisfactory” and recommends a change of leadership
The Tax Committee of the Verkhovna Rada has recognized the work of the Customs Service as unsatisfactory and recommended that the government “make appropriate personnel decisions.”
This is stated in the draft decision of the committee’s meeting of June 9 following the hearing of the leadership of the State Customs Service.
It is noted that the meeting, which took place online on May 18, was not attended by the acting head of the Customs, Viacheslav Demchenko. He explained that he was on a business trip because of a meeting with the heads of the Romanian customs administration the next day, but the committee found this reason disrespectful.
Demchenko’s excuse, hoping to save his position:
The Committee discussed reports of smuggling and schemes involving the importation of commercial goods under the guise of humanitarian aid, and the prevention of abuse. Ultimately, the Committee found the work of the Customs unsatisfactory due to problems in organizing the transfer of confiscated property to the Armed Forces that had become state property by right of inheritance. The MPs also drew attention to the problems of control over compliance with the rules for the movement of currency valuables. In addition, the meeting discussed the fight against the illegal movement of goods across the border, including cases of tobacco smuggling.
Attention was also drawn to the work of the heads of regional customs. “At the same time, over the past 3 months, the media, in particular on the official web resources of law enforcement agencies, have repeatedly disseminated information about the existence of abuses and corruption in the actions of officials of Odesa, Zakarpattia and Volyn customs,” the Committee concluded.
Thus, the MPs believe that the information about possible abuses “undermines the level of public confidence not only in customs officials, their impartiality and authority, but also in the state authorities in Ukraine in general.”
Therefore, the Tax Committee recommended that the Cabinet of Ministers, together with the Ministry of Finance, consider “the circumstances set forth in this decision and make appropriate personnel decisions based on the results of the review.”
And a few more pathetic attempts to stay in the customs officer‘s chair:
The meeting also emphasized the problem of queues at the borders on both sides, so the committee also recommended that the government make appropriate changes to increase the number of checkpoints, their capacity, etc.
Summary
Viacheslav Demchenko is on the verge of being fired. We want to believe that this looter-customs officer will receive a decent punishment for bribes and smuggling cover-ups. After all, while the war is on, the army is losing huge amounts of money because of people like Demchenko.