Ukraine Says Western Countries 'Unco-Operative' On Money Laundering

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

21 March 2002

Addressing a meeting of Western diplomats, Ukraine's head of State Tax Administration Mykola Azarov said that countries ignore Ukraine's requests for information about money-laundering.

It would be nice to hear not only "instructions" on how to fight money-laundering, said Azarov, but also to get practical assistance. Ukraine has developed quite a lot of techniques to combat money-laundering, he said, and the problem has been coped with domestically, but when money goes abroad, it is difficult to get information.

' Our criminals are helped by officials in countries through which dirty money goes', accused Azarov, 'therefore money-laundering is not only Ukraine's problem. We are sick and tired of moralizing by FATF [Financial Action Task Force] officers who come to lecture us. They should actually come to learn from us. What we need of them is real help, most importantly, information. Yet all we receive is formal replies to our inquiries from countries that are bound with us by treaties on mutual legal aid agreements, which means nothing other than assistance in money-laundering.'

He called on the diplomats to urge relevant bodies in their respective countries to offer legal assistance to Ukraine.

Mr Azarov also said that the State Tax Administration was currently engaged in checking the tax returns of candidates in the forthcoming general elections, as a result of which several dozen candidates had already been disqualified from standing, and hundreds more might face the same fate.

So far the agency had checked 2,880 tax returns submitted by candidates from 33 political parties and election blocs, almost 21,000 declarations by their family members and 3,504 declarations submitted by candidates standing for parliament in single-seat constituencies. The checks had revealed irregularities in the tax returns of 637 candidates standing in the nationwide multi-seat constituencies and of 870 candidates in single-seat constituencies.

Replying to questions from journalists, Mr Azarov denied that the administration was using the checks as a means of weakening its opposition, and insisted that the tax agency was wholly impartial.

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