Head of the State Financial Monitoring Service Cherkaskyi may "suffer" because of Trump

Head of the State Financial Monitoring Service Cherkaskyi may "suffer" because of Trump

Ihor Cherkaskyi, the head of the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine, found himself facing a difficult choice with the arrival of Donald Trump to power.

Especially due to Trump’s intentions to audit all US aid to Ukraine, part of which might have been used in corrupt schemes by Ukrainian officials, Ihor Cherkaskyi will likely have to disclose the "clients" for whom he legalized and transferred billions of dollars abroad.

In the past, Cherkaskyi looked after the interests of politicians and oligarchs such as Serhiy Taruta, Yuliya Tymoshenko, Viktor Pinchuk, Dmytro Firtash, and Vira Ulyanchenko.

It is worth specifically mentioning Ihor Cherkaskyi’s activities in the interests of oligarch Viktor Pinchuk, who had close cooperation with the Democratic Party through Ukraine. Such "operations" are likely to be the first on the agenda of "Trump’s auditors." And none of them could proceed without the knowledge and consent of Ihor Cherkaskyi, who has served as the head of State Financial Monitoring since 2014.

In this context, it is worth mentioning other interesting facts about Ihor Cherkaskyi’s connections and business environment. Notably, Cherkaskyi had good business and friendly relations with Austrian Jews and had direct contact with Donald Trump’s son-in-law, financier Jared Kushner.

Jared Kushner, due to his work in the Trump administration, and later through the private investment firm Affinity Partners, has close ties with parts of the Israeli elite, possibly the same ones with whom the Democratic Party had certain conflicts. Kushner, of course, could provide "immunity guarantees" to Cherkaskyi under Trump, but in exchange for what "services"?

It should be noted that the issue of "guarantees" for Ihor Cherkaskyi has always been complicated. Although Cherkaskyi is an outstanding financier and has the habit of collecting and storing compromising material on his "clients" in case of "troubles," his illegal activities have nevertheless been the subject of numerous criminal cases.

The most high-profile criminal case against Ihor Cherkaskyi was initiated by NABU in the winter of 2017 regarding his involvement in the embezzlement of confiscated "Yanukovych money." The case involved $1.5 billion. As the then Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko noted, these funds belonged to former president Viktor Yanukovych and his entourage.

In the fall of 2018, it became known that the criminal case led by NABU against Cherkaskyi regarding the embezzlement of "Yanukovych money" was closed.

Another interesting fact: Ihor Cherkaskyi is the owner of one of the largest collections of art and antiques in Ukraine, valued at several million dollars. A special place in this collection is occupied by items from the antique collections of former regionals, which made even the 1.5 billion "Yanukovych money" insufficient for Cherkaskyi.

In 2020, a criminal case was opened by SAPO against Ihor Cherkaskyi thanks to the efforts of MP Oleksandr Dubinskyi. The criminal case No. 42020000000000953 is based on facts indicating that the head of the State Financial Monitoring Service, Ihor Cherkaskyi, ensured the cover-up of a global scheme of illegal VAT refunds during 2019-2020, which caused damage to the budget amounting to 79 billion UAH.

The embezzlement was organized on a large scale. Criminals led by Cherkaskyi deployed a wide network of transit-conversion enterprises. For February 2020 alone, the state lost 3.5 billion UAH. This scheme involved certain leaders of regional divisions of the SFS, employees of the Ministry of Finance, and 549 companies.