Transparency International Ukraine urges NABU (the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine) to initiate a pre-trial investigation of the Head of State Fiscal Service of Ukraine Roman Nasirov, who withheld information on acquiring British citizenship in 2012.

Nasirov knowingly used false information to fill out official documents and used them to get access to state secrets. It seems that Nasirov may have committed a crime covered by article 366, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Here is the full text of the letter.

A.S. Sytnyk

Director

National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine

Report on the Criminal Offence

The information disclosed by NABU yesterday seems to imply that the Head of the State Fiscal Service Roman Nasirov (who is also accused of causing more than a 2 billion hryvnia loss to the State) is a citizen of the UK.

In particular, the official letter that NCA (National Crime Agency) forwarded to NABU states that Roman Nasirov has been the owner of a British passport since May 2012.

Nasirov has been the Head of the State Fiscal Service (an organization that has access to secret information) since 2015, and there are branches (both central and regional) within the SFS that are tasked with protecting this information. Therefore, Nasirov should have been screened in order to get access to state secrets after he became the Head of the service.

A person willing to work with state secrets should disclose all his relationships with foreign states and their inhabitants and, of course, citizenships of other countries.

If Roman Nasirov had submitted truthful information about being a citizen of another country, he would not have been granted access to state secrets, as these circumstances require a special examination procedure according to articles 23 and 24 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On State Secrets’.

We believe that Nasirov may have committed crimes stipulated in article 366, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, namely intentionally supplying false information for documents while being a government official.

According to article 214, paragraph 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CPC) of Ukraine, an investigator or prosecutor should submit information to the Unified Registry of Pre-trial Investigations about a criminal offense reported to him or her or discovered on their own from any source within 24 hours of discovery and start an investigation. According to article 214, paragraph 4 of the CPC of Ukraine, an investigator, prosecutor or another public official authorized to receive and register reports about criminal offences is obliged to comply by this rule. It is not permitted to reject such reports.

According to article 5, paragraph 3, item 3 of the CPC, the detectives of NABU are permitted to investigate crimes in the jurisdiction of other authorities in order to prevent, identify and solve crimes that are included in the area of authority of NABU according to this article. This should be agreed with the director of NABU and the prosecutor of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP).

We believe that the investigation of the above-mentioned crimes may ensure the identification and solving of crimes in NABU’s jurisdiction.

Based on the foregoing, in accordance with article 214 of CPC of Ukraine,

WE ASK

That the information mentioned in the report to the Unified Registry of Pre-trial Investigations be submitted and, if the prosecutor of the SAP approves it, that the pre-trial investigation of the possible crime covered by article 366, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine that could have been committed by the Head of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, Roman Nasirov, be initiated.

That we be informed about the start of the pre-trial investigation in the manner prescribed by the law.

Respectfully,

Yaroslav Yurchyshyn

Executive Director

Transparency International Ukraine