SBI probing Energy Customs chief's assets for legal violations

The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) is conducting a pre-trial investigation into the possible illegal enrichment of Anatoloy Komar, the head of the Energy Customs of the State Customs Service of Ukraine, SBI Director Oleksiy Sukhachev has told the Interfax-Ukraine agency.

"The SBI immediately responded to the journalistic investigation into the assets of the head of the Energy Customs. Information about the initiation of criminal proceedings on the grounds of an offense under Article 368-5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illegal enrichment) was entered into the ERDR on Saturday, immediately after the journalistic investigation was published," the SBI Director said.

He noted that the SBI has already sent a letter to the National Agency on Corruption Prevention(NACP) to conduct full monitoring of the lifestyle of the figurehead and is carrying out a number of other urgent investigative measures.

According to Sukhachev, it has been previously established that in the period from 2020 to the present, the head of the Energy Customs of the State Customs Service of Ukraine has probably acquired assets, the value of which exceeds his legal income by more than three thousand subsistence minimums for able-bodied persons.

In particular, as the director of the State Bureau of Investigation emphasized, the head of the Energy Customs and his family members during this period acquired a number of movable and immovable property, the value of which exceeds the amount of their legal income many times over.

"The fact of the use by the head of the Energy Customs in everyday life for personal purposes of an elite class car, which is registered in the ownership of a legal entity at a possibly understated value and possible undeclared expenses of the latter to pay for his daughter's education, is also being verified," Sukhachev added.

Earlier, journalists from the Schemes (Skhemy) program (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) published an investigative report about the luxurious lifestyle of the family of a high-ranking customs officer: after the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, they built an estate worth over EUR 70 million and own other elite property.

The State Customs Service of Ukraine has suspended Komar from his duties for the period of verification of the facts set forth in the journalistic investigation.