Former SBU chief Gersak is suspected of being involved in a property scam worth 22.6 million hryvnias
This was reported by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), the Office of the Prosecutor General and sources within law enforcement agencies.
DBR officials have notified the former head of a department within one of the law enforcement agencies in the Mykolaiv region that he is under suspicion. The agency has not officially disclosed his name; however, according to sources within law enforcement agencies cited by Ukrainska Pravda, the individual in question is Vitaliy Gersak – the former head of the SBU department in the Mykolaiv region.
According to the investigation, in 2020–2021 he acquired assets whose value significantly exceeded his legitimate income. The SBI stated that the discrepancy in income amounts to over 22 million 666 thousand hryvnias.
The National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NAZK) monitored the former official’s lifestyle. According to law enforcement officials, the investigation confirmed signs of illicit enrichment.
Assets via his wife’s family
In particular, in July 2021, the official’s wife’s mother, according to the investigation, having insufficient official income, purchased three parking spaces in an elite residential complex in the capital for almost 1.9 million UAH, a non-residential premises for more than 8.4 million UAH, and two flats in an elite district of Kyiv with a total value of over 12 million UAH.
She subsequently gifted this property to her daughter. After that, Gersak’s wife granted her husband the right to dispose of it.
The investigation established that the combined income of the official, his wife and his mother-in-law was insufficient to make such purchases.
The Office of the Prosecutor General reported that Gersak is charged with a criminal offence under Article 368-5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Pre-trial measure
The former official has already been served with a motion for the imposition of a preventive measure. The prosecution is requesting that he be remanded in custody.
The court is due to decide on the preventive measure today.
What is known about previous investigations
In October, the NACP sent a report on Gersak to the NABU. It referred to expensive property, land and a fleet of luxury cars which, according to the investigation, were disproportionate to the family’s official income.
The NACP also found that Gersak had provided false information amounting to 800,000 UAH.
In February, “Our Money with Denys Bigus” reported that the family of Vitaliy Gersak, then head of the SBU in Mykolaiv Oblast, owned expensive property, a large amount of land and a fleet of luxury cars, which did not correspond to the family’s official income.
Following Gersak’s dismissal, his family purchased property worth approximately $1.5 million.
On 18 November 2020, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Vitaliy Gersak from his post as head of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Mykolaiv region.
At the same time, the Mykolaiv court had previously found no evidence that the former head of the SBU in the Mykolaiv region had intended to provide false information in his declaration and closed the relevant administrative proceedings.
Hersak’s political project
Hersak is also known as the head of the civil society organisation “Free and Loyal”. The organisation positioned itself almost as a new political force.
Now this story seems even more telling: a man who promised others a path into high politics has himself come under suspicion over assets whose origin the investigation considers unexplained.
As reported by ThePublic, a fake SBU employee swindled over 6 million hryvnias from a People’s Artist.
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