Journalists discover more evidence of rampant corruption by Ukraine's former prosecutor general Viktor Shokin
The former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was dismissed by the President in March, had a wealthy common-law wife and a child which were not listed in his declaration, as was reported in the TV investigative program Schemes.
Journalists noted that "the investigation revealed that he has both a child and a common-law wife. It would be his private affair, if it weren’t for the fact that a number of luxury apartments including some estates abroad are in his common-law wife’s and child’s name. Shokin did not mention either of them in his declaration," the program stated.
The Investigation revealed that a Ukrainian woman, Oksana Hrynevych, who works as the Deputy Chief Physician of the Feofaniya hospital in Kyiv, is Shokin’s common-law wife and owns expensive real estate (about 10 million hryvnia for one estate) in the Czech Republic, as well as land and a house of approximately 300 square meters in a Pylyava, Kyiv region.
"During the investigation, Schemes journalists revealed not only a number of facts which formally confirm this but also found out that Viktor Shokin and Oksana Hrynevych have a child in whose name a part of property is registered. None of this was mentioned in Shokin’s asset and income declaration, and the section titles "family property" contains only dashes," journalists state.
According to an expert at Transparency International, Yevhen Cherniak, it’s a "typical scheme." "Often there are cases where a couple divorces on purpose in order to transfer property to a wife or start a relationship with another person to transfer property to him or her formally," he commented.
Journalists also state that Shokin and Hrynevych have a three-year-old child.
According to the investigation, in the summer of 2014, Shokin presented her with an estate of virtually 900 square meters in Zabir'ya near Kyiv right after he was appointed the Deputy Prosecutor by Vitaly Yarema.
Property which was owned by Shokin and then was transferred as a gift and became the property of his daughter was never stated in his declaration. At the same time, Shokin remains the lessee of the land which is the property of his under-aged daughter.
The Gift of Property Deed specifies that Shokin and Hrynevych are the parents of this child.
Journalists of the program tried to contact them for comment, however, they did not respond.
Viktor Shokin was appointed as Deputy Prosecutor General in June 2014.