The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has uncovered evidence of illicit enrichment amounting to 24.81 million UAH involving Denys Shymon, an administrator at the Interior Ministry’s Service Center No. 2143 in Transcarpathia. A comprehensive audit revealed that the public official and his family spent recent years laundering unexplained assets through the construction of a private spa resort and high-volume cash withdrawals abroad.
Denys Shymon has served in Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies since 2005, transitioning to the National Police in 2015. In March 2021, he was appointed Deputy Head of the Preventive Activity Department at the Rakhiv District Police Department, holding the rank of captain. Immediately following the start of the full-scale invasion, Shymon resigned from the police force, later joining the regional Service Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Transcarpathia in July 2022.
A financial analysis of the family’s assets revealed a vast discrepancy between their official earnings and actual expenditures:
Official Income: State tax data shows that between 1998 and 2021, Shymon earned 1.3 million UAH, while his wife, Anna, earned 130,500 UAH.
Cash Holdings: In his 2021 financial disclosure, the official declared 900,000 UAH in cash, while his wife declared 775,000 UAH.
NACP analysts concluded that these cash savings could not have been accumulated through official salaries or authorized vehicle sales.
According to investigation files, in February 2020, Shymon’s father, Vasyl Shymon, voluntarily surrendered a 1,879-square-meter land parcel in the village of Danylovo to state ownership. Later that year, the same plot was reallocated to his daughter-in-law, Anna, who subsequently registered as a sole proprietorship operating in real estate, hospitality, and car rentals. Simultaneously, her father established a real estate and construction firm in the Czech Republic, Damarito s.r.o., with a nominal capital of 1,000 CZK.
In July 2022, Anna Shymon submitted documentation to begin constructing a spa facility «by own means» with an estimated budget of 7.69 million UAH. By July 2024, she registered ownership of a 617.5-square-meter spa hotel and an adjacent bathhouse. The NACP rejected claims that the project was funded through parental financial assistance, as the parents’ total historical income could not cover the facility’s construction costs.
Between 2022 and 2024, over 22.3 million UAH from unidentified sources flowed through bank accounts held by the family. During this period, family members withdrew 13.08 million UAH in cash while abroad.
«To bypass the National Bank of Ukraine’s withdrawal limit of 12,500 UAH per week, the family executed at least 1,046 separate transactions abroad. The agency classifies this as smurfing—the practice of breaking down large sums into smaller transactions to evade financial monitoring,» the NACP report states.
Shymon’s claim that the remaining 9.22 million UAH was profit generated from currency exchange arbitrage was deemed economically implausible. Generating such returns on the 13 million UAH withdrawn would require a profit margin of 70.5%, far exceeding the prevailing market rate of 5% to 10%.
The total value of assets and monetary turnover accumulated by the Shymon family from 2022 to 2024 approached 30 million UAH. In contrast, the combined legitimate income of the family and his wife’s parents over a 26-year period (1998–2024) totaled just 5.18 million UAH.
The unexplained variance stands at 24.81 million UAH, a figure that significantly exceeds the statutory threshold for criminal liability under Ukraine’s illicit enrichment laws. The NACP has formalized its findings in an official conclusion to be forwarded to law enforcement authorities for further criminal prosecution.