According to his report, a government employee in Ukraine’s Rivne region has close to $8 million in bitcoin and 500 Tesla shares. The development comes as another Ukrainian politician in Kyiv has struggled to establish ownership of cryptocurrency assets listed on her asset declaration.
Cryptocurrency investments have grown in popularity among Ukrainian politicians in recent years, as indicated by statutory asset declarations. According to recent media reports, a member of the Virovsky Village Council in western Rivne Oblast revealed ownership of 124 BTC, which is worth about $8 million at current exchange rates.
Vladimir Pachesny purchased the coins in early 2013 for 73,920 hryvnia, or little more than $2,800 at today’s inflated Ukrainian fiat currency conversion rate. In 2019, the 36-year-old deputy also purchased 500 shares of Tesla, the American electric car firm that drove crypto prices higher this year after announcing its acceptance of and ownership of bitcoin.
Pachesny is not the first nor the wealthiest cryptocurrency investor among Ukrainian authorities, despite the country’s status as a pioneer in crypto adoption. According to an April article, government employees and politicians possessed 46,351 bitcoins worth 75 billion hryvnias (more than $2.6 billion) at the time, with Mishalov Dmitrovich, a member of the Dnipro City Council, holding the greatest cache of 18,000 bitcoins.
According to data obtained by the Opendatabot program, which monitors public registers in Ukraine, prominent people acknowledged to possessing a total of 46 351 BTC and a variety of other digital currencies, including ETH, LTC, BCH, and XMR, in their 2020 reports. However, not all of them have been able to present the appropriate documentation establishing their ownership of the coins. The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) pledged this spring to check the figures.
Another Ukrainian Member of Parliament Is Unable to Account for Owned Cryptocurrency
In September, Ukrainian media claimed that a member of President Zelensky’s Servant of the People party had been unable to authenticate his digital assets. According to data given by the congressman, his wife, Maria Saltykova, possessed 42 BTC last year, but NAPC said that he had not presented any evidence proving this information’s veracity. The deputy merely said that the cryptocurrency was held in a hardware wallet that was taken earlier this year when his vehicle was stolen.
Gurin’s predicament is not unique in Ukraine. According to a recent story published by the “Slovo I Dilo” site, another Verkhovna Rada member, Anna Skorokhod, failed to provide the NAPC with documentation that she genuinely possessed the cryptocurrency she earlier disclosed to the organization.
Skorokhod revealed in her most recent disclosure that she had 44 BTC, 130 ETH, and 135 ETC, while her spouse at the time, Alexey Alyakin, held around 118, 78 H, and 350 ETC. The Ukrainian Member of Parliament provided “generic explanations on the purchase and ownership of the cryptocurrency without presenting documents attesting to the facts of the acquisition and the cryptocurrency’s availability as of the reporting period’s end.”
At the time of purchase, the cryptocurrencies were valued at more over 2.7 million hryvnia (about $106,000). Skorokhod informed the NAPC that owing to her lack of expertise regarding digital money, her husband handled all transactions involving the coins on her behalf. She claimed that after their divorce, she lost access to the keys and any related paperwork.
The public group Virtual Assets of Ukraine and the Blockchain4Ukraine association, which brings together parliamentarians from various political factions in the Ukrainian parliament, have suggested introducing a rule that would boost openness regarding officials’ asset declarations. The two institutions require public officials to provide their bitcoin wallet addresses in their filings.
Also Read: India’s Crypto-Dilemma Leads Prime Minister Modi To The Negotiating Table
Wallets