U.S. ready to assist Ukraine in creating Financial Investigations Service

The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is ready
to offer Ukraine help in creating its Financial Investigations Service, which
is planned as the single state body to investigate financial crimes committed
against the state, said on Jan. 14 Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr
Danylyuk after meeting with the network’s acting director. FinCEN is actively
monitoring the process of creating this service in Ukraine and is already
working with Ukraine’s Financial Monitoring Service, Danylyuk said. Recall, the
IMF has made creating the Financial Investigations Service among its key
requirements for granting its next loan tranche to Ukraine.

Zenon Zawada: Ukraine’s
Tax Police was officially liquidated in September with the expectation that it
would be replaced by the Financial Investigations Service, a single state body
that would investigate and recommend prosecutions in line with Western
standards. Yet legislation has yet to surface so far, despite a September
statement from Danylyuk that it has been drafted. If Danylyuk has drafted the
legislation, it’s likely to be harsh and aimed at provoking the Presidential
Administration, with whom he has a long-running feud.

Another reason we can expect opposition from the
Presidential Administration is its record with the Anti-Corruption Court, for
which it has tinkered with legislation in order to provide maximum immunity for
the ruling elite. So it’s likely we’ll see a replay of the situation with the
court, in which the president’s version is criticized by Ukraine’s
Western-financed NGOs and unlikely to be backed by Western governments. And
both government bodies will be resisted by the Presidential Administration until
after the 2019 elections.