Key Takeaways
- Some Ukrainian politicians have millions in Bitcoin unaccounted for
- The most notorious among others is Dmitry Gurin claims he’s lost 42 BTC
- Tax records indicate the official and his family earned less than 1 million hryvnias (about $37,000) since 2001.
Dmitry Gurin, a Ukrainian parliament member, has lost a large amount of bitcoin to car thieves, according to the "Slovo I Dilo" website.
A hardware wallet containing the bitcoin was stolen from the assistant's car in early 2018.
It was reported by the Ukrainian website Forklog that Oleksandr Saltykov had a 42 BTC windfall worth 22.5 million hryvnias (about $840,000 at current hryvnia values or over $2 million at BTC values). This information was disputed by the NAPC of Ukraine.
He stated that the vehicle was stolen on April 21, with the bitcoin wallet inside, according to a recent Parliamentary explanation.
He also said the Dnipro Police is looking into it.
Among the Ukrainian political elite, Gurin stands out but is not unique.
In a leaked report on September 1st, Oleksiy Kucher, the SRS's head, had not been able to show ownership of a bigger bitcoin portfolio.
After leaving his post as Kharkiv Oblast governor, Kucher stated in a December statement that he had bought 77 BTC for 13.1 million hryvnias (about $490,000 at current exchange rates).
At the time of writing, the coins were worth almost $3.7 million.
Records show the official's family has earned less than $37,000 since 2001.
Due to his apparent submission of facts, NAPC believes Kucher's possession of cryptocurrency is fraudulent. The agency continued on September 6:
A public address is used to identify the owner of a cryptocurrency. Unable to provide a public bitcoin address.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and XMR were all listed as assets in 2020 asset disclosures by 652 Ukrainian politicians.
The National Agency for Preventing Corruption said it will verify the numbers.
Are politicians' digital assets a problem?
