In 2014, the long-suffering Ukrainian people made it clear that the only vector of the state’s development is the path to European, democratic values.
Remembering the times of the “Revolution of Dignity” one should remember its root causes – total corruption, extortion, business expropriation and cynical bureaucratic arbitrariness. It was simply impossible to live in an eventful system of coordinates – and the people rose up, overcame the system, expelled most of the criminals from the offices of power.
And, indeed, there was hope for a bright future, the implementation of priority reforms, the construction of a legal, democratic state.
One of the main areas of reform was the system of law enforcement agencies.
Thanks to the political will and the help of partners, it was possible to create new anti-corruption bodies, the State Bureau of Investigation, reform the prosecutor’s office and the Security Service of Ukraine in a short period of time.
However, the main issue in reforming the law enforcement system remains the need to eliminate the corrupt vestige of Yanukovych’s time – the state fiscal service, with the simultaneous dismissal of all its employees and the creation of a qualitatively new institution that would deal with the analysis, detection and investigation of economic crimes – the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine.
The concept of creating the above-mentioned office is excellent, but only under one condition – the staffing of the management and executive staff must be made up of persons who have not previously worked in the fiscal and other law enforcement agencies of Ukraine. All other approaches will ensure only one result – reanimation of the fiscal service in its best “traditions” – extortion, extortion, bribery… and slander the very idea of reform.
Fortunately, the process of creating the BEB has started, and it is at this time that the competition for the position of the head of the bureau continues. Of course, taking into account the Ukrainian realities, he could not pass without a scandal, but the conflict between “old friends” – the head of the competition commission, Timofey Milovanov, and one of the candidates for the position – Oleksandr Danyliuk, which logically ended with a bruise under Milovanov’s eye – these are flowers, in compared with the intermediate results of the competition.
So, as of August 13, 2021, the financier, prosecutor and colonel, human resources officer, current head of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine – Vadym Melnyk – is entering the final stage of the competition.
The mentioned candidate is an extremely interesting person who started his career flight during Kuchma’s time, working in various positions in the tax police. Then, under Yushchenko and Yanukovych – in DPS, DPA and Klymenko’s Ministry of Revenue.
It is logical to assume that Mr. Melnyk was well aware of how his colleagues gave entrepreneurs “nightmares”, reimbursed VAT for a 15% kickback, created and drove customers to system “platforms”, which gladly converted payments into cash.
But no, of course, during his 20 years of service in the fiscal authorities, Mr. Melnyk did not know about this, and if he had known, he would of course have written a statement about the illegal actions of his colleagues to, at least, the SBU.
Regardless of the above, conscientious and long-term work in the fiscal authorities allowed our “hero” to amass a million dollar fortune. Yes, only the candidate’s car fleet consists of elite Range Rover and Porsche Cayenne worth about 6 million hryvnias, and this is not to mention real estate in Ukraine and abroad. But, of course, “all wealth is earned by hard work for the benefit of the state”.
However, one story that happened to the candidate a few years ago, and forced him even to resign (temporarily) from the service, somewhat opens the curtain of the mystery of his fortune. Namely:
As Melnyk explained to his colleagues, he made the decision to resign from the tax police because the National Police documented his son in the sale of narcotics at the National University of the State Fiscal Service. However, this explanation does not stand up to any criticism – after his dismissal, Vadym Ivanovych, who was apparently ashamed to look his colleagues in the eye for Chad’s antics, got a job as an associate professor at the same National University of the State Fiscal Service.
But, in fact, in the summer of 2016, the criminal regime forced the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine to initiate criminal proceedings based on the fact that Vadym Melnyk, Igor Pakholko, and an investigator of the State Security Service of the Russian Federation demanded $300,000 from Olga Fedorova, the owner of the Symbol boutique chain, for closing criminal proceedings No. 32014220000000147, registered on 07/22/2014 under Part 3 of Art. 212, Part 1 of Art. 205, Part 1 of Art. 263, Part 4 of Art. 358 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. As Fedorova herself claimed, the tax police pursued her at the behest of Vitaly Danilov, a former People’s Deputy from BYU (Fedorova for some reason called Vitaliy Bogdanovych a “bandit”), who regularly demanded money from her.
In 2016, Fedorova complained to the Prosecutor General’s Office and the SBU that Melnyk, the head of the Main Investigative Department of Financial Investigations of the SFS of Ukraine, allegedly demanded $300,000 from her. The main department “K” of the SBU, which carried out operational support of the case at the request of Fedorova, prepared 150 thousand dollars, which Fedorova had to hand over to the future director of the BEB under the control of the SBU. But Vadym Ivanovych suddenly did not go to work, changed all his phones and fell ill. However, there were so many materials collected for him that after the sudden illness ended (and nothing is eternal in this life), Vadym Ivanovych had to leave the State Fiscal Service. Moreover, the same evil tongues claim that a high-ranking official from the General Prosecutor’s Office warned Melnyk about secret investigative actions against him.
By the way, after this story, money was demanded from Fedorova for the closure of the criminal proceedings more than once, and the SBU put an end to it on May 19, 2017, by detaining the former deputy head of the Operational and Technical Department of the NABU Oleksandr Samkovo when receiving $150,000 from Fedorova.
The candidate for the post of the head of the Bureau of Economic Security has such a life experience – fiscal, briber, corruptor, dollar millionaire – Vadym Melnyk.
The editorial staff of UA2DAY calls on all those authorized to conduct the competition and the subsequent appointment of persons, including the authorized ambassadors of the USA and Great Britain, to pay attention to the above information and prevent the curtailment of the reform of the law enforcement sector of Ukraine by appointing Vadym Ivanovich Melnyk to the position of the head of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine.
