Position: former head of the Southern Regional Department of the State Administrative Service of Ukraine, currently deputy director of the Department of Work Organization, Planning and Control.
Sphere of corrupt activity: law enforcement.
Region of corruption activity: Kyiv region.
Qualification: the official's actions were qualified under Part 1 of Article 366-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (declaration of false information).
Status: at large.
Case story: In December 2022, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office reported suspicions of the head of one of the regional departments of the State Border Service of Ukraine in false declarations. According to media reports, it was Serhiy Mul.
On December 20, 2022, the SAPO prosecutor and NABU detectives reported suspicions to the current head of one of the regional departments of the State Border Service of the intentional inclusion by the declarant of knowingly inaccurate information in the declarations for 2020 and 2021, which differ from the reliable data by more than UAH 1.5 million.
As noted by NABU, the official was obliged, but did not include in the electronic declaration for 2020 information about the use and actual ownership by his wife of a house in the suburbs of Kyiv and the land plot on which it is located. Although the house is not put into operation, it is quite suitable for living: his family lived there throughout 2020 and 2021. The cost of this unfinished construction object is over 1.5 million UAH.
After the NABU and SAPO began investigating, the border guard tried to hide the fact of non-declaration, and reflected in the declaration for 2021 information about a "land plot with buildings" with a total area of 500 m2 in the suburbs of Kyiv, which allegedly only since January 1, 2021 has been in the possession of his wife and daughters under a different right of use, namely "temporary residence."
Subsequently, in April 2024, the High Anti-Corruption Court acquitted and found not guilty the deputy director of one of the departments of the Administration of the State Border Service of Ukraine, who was accused of false declaration.
Persons potentially involved in corruption schemes: it is known from open sources that Serhiy Mul had no accomplices.
Assets: in the amended declaration for 2023, Serhiy Mul indicated that he owns six land plots, an apartment in the city of Boryspil, and the official also temporarily lives in an official apartment in Odessa. His wife Maria owns three land plots, a garage, and she indicated an apartment in Boryspil as the city of registration and residence.
The official's wife also owns a Volkswagen Passat B8 car worth almost UAH 250,000.
Serhiy Mul's income for the second year of the full-scale war was 1,390,450 UAH.
Mul declared UAH 935,411 in monetary assets in his bank accounts.
Persons who should have reacted: law enforcement agencies responded to Mul's criminal activities in a timely manner, but the official never received a fair punishment and still has the opportunity to hold public office.
Scandals: Serhiy Mul became famous in 2023 after the publication of a video of his communication with patrol police officers. In the fall of 2022, law enforcement officers stopped the general's car in the middle of the night during curfew. They tried to test him for alcohol intoxication, but he refused to be tested and threatened the police officer with the words: "Principled? Take a risk!"
After the scandal, Mul was dismissed from the position of Head of the Southern Regional Department of the State Administrative Service of the State Administrative Service of the Republic of Ukraine and transferred to the position of Deputy Director of the Department of Organization of Work, Planning and Control of the State Administrative Service of the Republic of Ukraine in Kyiv.
Mul's name also figured in another scandal in 2023, when his subordinate press officer Ivanna Plantovska went to Paris to celebrate the New Year during a full-scale invasion. She was subsequently fired.
Sources:
https://public.nazk.gov.ua/documents/fd54285c-33c9-44f3-afbc-b04103a3a17e