The wife of the Head of the Main Operational Directorate of the State Bureau of Investigation, Ihor Heyda, Iryna, owns real estate valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars. At the same time, she is not engaged in business, and whether she works at all is unknown.
This is reported with reference to an investigation by NV.
Elite real estate at a reduced price
NV journalists gained access to documents that confirm the wife of the Head of the Main Operational Directorate of the State Bureau of Investigation, Ihor Heyda’s wife - Iryna - owned real estate worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. At the same time, there is no information that she owns a business.
There is almost no information about Ihor Heyda available to the public. There was only information about his appointment to the State Bureau of Investigation in 2020. Before this, Heyda worked at the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) and led the Kharkiv Antimonopoly Committee.
The journalists were interested in the wife of the SBI official - Iryna Heyda. The point is that she owns elite real estate, and at the same time - there are no official reports about her employment or own business.
In April 2021, Iryna Heyda purchased an apartment with an area of 143.4 square meters in the elite residential complex "Boulevard of Fountains," located in Pechersk. According to the documents, the cost of the apartment in 2021 reached 340 thousand dollars. In June of the same year, she purchased two parking spaces, each costing 687.5 thousand hryvnias. Overall, the apartment and two parking spaces cost the Heyda family 390 thousand dollars.
NV journalists also managed to find out that between 2017 and 2019, Iryna Heyda was not working anywhere. Her husband Ihor at this time headed the Kharkiv Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU) and also received additional salary from the SSU.
The earnings declared by Ihor Heyda in 2019 - namely about 626.5 thousand hryvnias (approximately 25.5 thousand dollars at the end of 2019 exchange rate), of which almost 158 thousand was pension - would not have allowed his family to acquire expensive elite real estate, emphasized the journalists in the investigation.
The journalists also point out that the total savings of the family at that time were also relatively small: as of the end of 2019 - about 37 thousand dollars, of which 35.5 thousand dollars in cash, and 28 thousand hryvnias in bank accounts. Another 620 euros were also kept in cash.
"Due to the absence of declarations of Ihor Heyda for 2020-2021 in the public domain, the sources of income that would allow such expensive purchases by the members of his family remain unknown. It looks extremely doubtful that the Heyda family managed to save over 300 thousand dollars in 2020 and in less than 4 months of 2021," said in a comment to journalists the head of the legal department of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, Olena Shcherban.
Moreover, journalists suggest that the cost of the apartment may have been artificially lowered, as Iryna Heyda purchased it at the same price as the previous owner from the developer.
Journalists also drew attention to another property of Iryna Heyda. In 2021, she sold an elite house in Kharkiv, the area of which reaches almost 400 square meters. According to official documents, in 2012 Heyda purchased it for 320 thousand hryvnias, and in 2021 sold it for 550 thousand dollars. Journalists believe that in 2012 the price could have been artificially lowered, as a similar house then cost about 21 thousand dollars.
The significant difference in the value of the property, lack of changes in the area of the house, and low purchase price at the time of acquisition indicate possible manipulations that may be related to tax evasion or legalization of illegal income. If the cost of the house at the date of acquisition was artificially lowered, this may indicate the legalization of income obtained by criminal means through manipulation of the valuation. The sale of real estate for 550 thousand dollars in 2021 may be used to "explain" the origin of funds that were not previously declared, " believes Olena Shcherban.
At the same time, journalists were informed by the SBI that a check was conducted regarding the property of the official’s wife. The department stated that "as a result of a logical and arithmetic check of the declaration, no violations of the requirements of anti-corruption legislation in terms of declaration were found".