Ukraine Counts Cryptocurrency Millionaires Among Officials

The data monitoring service Opendatabot has identified the largest cryptocurrency holders among Ukrainian officials.

In 2022, digital assets were mentioned in 1,428 declarations by public servants, doubling the 2021 figure of 788. The three most popular coins are Bitcoin (listed in 816 declarations), Ethereum (624), and USDT (490).

In 2021, Anna Pozdnyakova, director of the Odessa City Heating Supply Company, set a record for the declared value of Bitcoin at 53 million UAH. In 2022, the lead was taken by Serhiy Karpenko, deputy head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, who owns Bitcoin equivalent to 41 million UAH.

The largest amount of the first cryptocurrency in 2022—121 BTC—was declared by Mykyta Kuzkevych, a deputy of the Odessa Regional Council. At the time of publication, their value exceeds 217 million UAH.

In second place for the amount of digital gold is Ivan Ivanov, first deputy head of the Polissya Customs, with 102 BTC. He is followed by Oleksandr Kizlyar, a deputy of the Khmelnytskyi District Council, with 100 BTC.

The aforementioned Serhiy Karpenko also set a record in 2021 and 2022 for the fiat equivalent of Ethereum he owns—14.6 million UAH.

The top spot for the number of coins is held by Ihor Osipov, a deputy of the Podilsk District Council in the Odessa region, with 1800 ETH, followed by Oleksandr Kizlyar with 1000 ETH. Next is Vitaliy Kislyi, head of a department in the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office, with 893 ETH.

The largest amount of the stablecoin Tether for 2021 and 2022 was declared by Vitaliy Brovko, deputy head of the department of the Prosecutor General’s Office, with 774,500 USDT.

The record for the declared fiat equivalent in USDT belongs to Maksym Kiselev, director of the Department of State Executive Service of the Ministry of Justice, at 25 million UAH.

Some officials have lost access to their digital assets. Among them is Roman Saramaha, deputy head of the State Service of Geology and Subsoil, with 380.95 BTC lost (about 686 million UAH at the time of writing), and Ihor Osipov with 1800 ETH (more than 168 million UAH).

Opendatabot analysts noted that officials make a significant number of errors in cryptocurrency declarations.

“Based on the statistics obtained, owning such an opaque asset as cryptocurrency is not considered risky or suspicious for officials. The number of such officials has almost doubled in the past couple of years,” they added.

Earlier, ForkLog reported that Ukraine’s Minister for Strategic Industries, Oleksandr Kamyshin, earned over 17.4 million UAH from cryptocurrency sales in 2023.

Meanwhile, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, Vitaliy Kim, declared 0.71 BTC belonging to his wife, and the candidate for the head of the NACP, Kateryna Kaplyuk, declared ownership of 31 digital assets.