A Ukrainian lawmaker is about to face trial after allegedly making an attempt to bribe a authorities official with $10,000 value of Bitcoin, anti-corruption officers mentioned on April 16.
The case facilities round serving lawmaker Andriy Odarchenko. In a Telegram publish from the Nationwide Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), the nation’s anti-corruption company mentioned it had despatched the case to the Excessive Anti-Corruption Court docket (VAKS).
Ukrainian Lawmaker ‘Provided Official $50k’ in BTC
Odarchenko is an MP for the Kharkiv Oblast constituency. He represents the ruling Servant of the Folks Social gathering.
In November final 12 months, NABU initially charged him. VAKS then ordered that Odarchenko be detained for 2 months.
NABU officers suppose Odarchenko tried to bribe the pinnacle of the State Reconstruction Company, Mustafa Nayem, in August 2023.
Officers suppose Odarchenko requested Nayem to assist allocate funds to restore Kharkiv State Biotechnology College.
Odarchenko is the previous head of the college, and reportedly nonetheless retains shut hyperlinks with the establishment.
He allegedly promised Nayem an “unlawful” Bitcoin cost “equal to $50,000,” NABU mentioned.
The company mentioned the lawmaker “later supplied part of this quantity” – BTC 0.39 – which, “at the moment was the equal of $10,000.”
Ukraine’s ‘First’ Crypto Corruption Case
NABU and the Servant of the Folks Social gathering famous that the case was the primary anti-corruption probe within the nation to contain cryptoassets. The company claimed that Odarchenko informed Nayem:
“I like crypto. Haven’t you ever used crypto? It’s nice. I’ve my very own [crypto] exchanges. In all places – in Lviv, Kharkiv, and Kyiv. Even in Spain.”
Impounding Russian billionaires’ property didn’t do a lot for Ukraine, however a tax would possibly, says @LionelRALaurent https://t.co/ReFTaWytwF by way of @opinion
— Bloomberg (@enterprise) April 17, 2024
The company added that it had been “knowledgeable” of “suspicions” surrounding the lawmaker on November 21, 2023, and “accomplished” its probe in January 2024.
And NABU concluded that it “hopes that the case will even be thought of by VAKS in an affordable timeframe.”
Kyiv is at present formulating EU Markets in Crypto-Belongings (MiCA)-inspired crypto regulation.
In January, Kateryna Rozhkova, the First Deputy Governor of the Ukrainian central financial institution, mentioned that cryptoassets “should not cash.”