Ukraine parliament rejects investigation of offshore accounts
2 June 2016
Ukraine’s parliament rejected on June 1 a proposal to create a temporary parliamentary investigative commission to investigate offshore bank accounts allegedly created by top government officials, including Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. These accounts were exposed by the international Panama Papers scandal. The motion drew only 108 out of needed 150 MPs in support, largely from Oleh Liashko’s Radical Party and the Fatherland party led by Yulia Tymoshenko.
During the debates for the measure, Poroshenko Bloc MP Mustafa Nayyem asked Liashko to testify to the commission about what funds he used to fly in the planes of oligarch Rinat Akhmetov to visit his factories. Liashko wanted to head this temporary commission, Nayyem pointed out. He also asked Tymoshenko to explain the USD 200 mln that she transferred to the offshore company Somali Enterprises many years ago.
Zenon Zawada: In his remarks, Nayyem struck at the core of the reason why the measure to create the commission to investigate offshore accounts failed. Too many MPs have too many ties to offshore accounts, both past and present. If they were to accuse the state’s top officials, they would be leaving themselves vulnerable to similar accusations. Among the few visible ways out of this closed circle is for the public to elect officials who have no ties to corrupt schemes. Until then, Ukraine’s mountain of criminal accusations will continue to swell without any prosecutions.
