He sold the status of a people’s deputy: the head of a political party was detained in Kyiv for accepting a bribe
In Kyiv, law enforcement officers have detained the leader of a political party suspected of fraud and selling places on the list for the upcoming parliamentary elections. During his detention, he received one hundred and sixty thousand US dollars for including a person in the party.
This was reported by the Security Service of Ukraine.
The Security Service and the National Police detained the suspect in a restaurant in Kyiv. According to the investigation, the suspect continued to offer positions on the electoral list, despite the fact that the court in October canceled the registration of the political party he led due to the discovery of forgery of constituent documents.
Law enforcement officers established that he had promised his clients the status of a people’s deputy in the next parliamentary elections. It was during the transfer of funds in the amount of one hundred and sixty thousand US dollars that he was detained.
Investigators also recorded that he publicly spread fake news about the Defense Forces and the socio-political situation in Ukraine. In addition, he spread Kremlin narratives about the situation at the front and called for the disruption of mobilization.
To distribute such content, according to the SBU, he used his own social media pages with a total audience of almost half a million subscribers. During the searches, law enforcement officers seized equipment and documents indicating his alleged involvement in fraud.
The detainee was informed of suspicion under Part 5 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He is being held in custody with an alternative bail of six million seven hundred and twenty-five thousand hryvnias.
The investigation is ongoing for possible additional qualification of the suspect’s actions. He faces up to twelve years in prison with confiscation of property.
According to RBC-Ukraine, we are talking about the founder and head of the Garant party, Valery Tokar.
What is known about Valeriy Tokar?
Valeriy Tokar, born in 1984 in Kyiv, is the founder and chairman of the political party “Garant”. In 2021, he created and headed the party, as well as the public organization of the same name. According to him, he chose this name because of the nickname he had at work.
In 2020, he filed a petition demanding that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky resign. In 2018, Tokar founded the Garant News news agency.
From 2014 to 2021, he was the director of the private company Ukratomenergo. The media reported on the connection between this company, Tokar, and the minister of the Yanukovych era, Eduard Stavytsky. In 2014, the company Ukratomenergo, which was engaged in renting out apartments, won a series of tenders from the Ministry of Economy for sixty-one million hryvnias during Stavytsky’s leadership of the department.
In 2012, Tokar unsuccessfully ran for the Verkhovna Rada as a self-nominated candidate in the 91st constituency of Kyiv region. Before that, from 2006 to 2010, he headed the construction company “Kiybudproekt”. In 2004–2011, he worked in small business at the limited liability company “TV and KS”.
In 2003, Tokar graduated from the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute with a degree in “physical materials science.” In 2016, he received a second degree from the Kyiv University of Management and Entrepreneurship with a degree in entrepreneurship economics.
We will remind you that anti-corruption authorities have declared a suspicion against the current MP in a case of large-scale money laundering . He is suspected of embezzling over 9 million hryvnias and further legalizing this money through fictitious transactions and the purchase of expensive cars.
By the way, back in the fall of 2024, People’s Deputy Yevheniy Shevchenko was suspected of treason . The reason was his public calls to President Volodymyr Zelensky to start a “dialogue” with the Russians, which the investigation regarded as actions to the detriment of Ukraine’s defense capability and information security.
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