“UAH 332,000 salary: despite the criminal case, the chief lawyer of the NBU continues to work in his position and receive exorbitant amounts of money Oleksandr Zyma, director of the legal department of the NBU, against whom criminal proceedings have been opened, received UAH 332,000 in salary for October. For 2023, his income at the NBU amounted to UAH 5.5 million.”, — write on: unn.ua
Chief lawyer of the National Bank of Ukraine, Oleksandr Zyma, submitted a notification to the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption about significant changes in property status. He indicated that he received 332,025 hryvnias in salary in October.
According to the declaration for 2023, Zima earned almost 5.5 million hryvnias for the year at the National Bank. In addition, last year he received more than 1.8 million hryvnias of income in the amount of the nominal value of redeemed OVDP bonds.
Zima stated in the declaration that he kept $170,000 in cash. His bank accounts last year had a total of almost 450,000 hryvnias and more than 23,000 pounds sterling. The chief lawyer of the NBU also has four bars of bank gold.
It is interesting that Oleksandr Zyma did not indicate any income of Kateryna Zyma’s wife in the declaration. According to his declaration, only 2,452 hryvnias are stored in her bank account. At the same time, according to the data of the declaration, Kateryna Zyma made almost 1.9 million hryvnias in advance payment under the contract with LLC “BUDKEPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT COMPANY”
Let’s add
Criminal proceedings were opened due to Oleksandr Zyma’s letter to the Deposit Guarantee Fund of Individuals (FGVFO). In the document, Zima, who is simultaneously the director of the legal department of the NBU and the chairman of the Administrative Council of the FGVFD, on behalf of the National Bank recommended that the Fund withdraw the lawsuits filed by Concord Bank against the NBU. These lawsuits related to cancellation of fines in the amount of almost 63.5 million hryvnias and were filed even before the decision to liquidate the bank.
The Deposit Guarantee Fund heeded this recommendation, which, according to Olena Sosedka, deprived the bank’s shareholders of their constitutional right to a fair trial.
In this way, Zima probably questioned the independence of the Directorate of the Individual Deposit Guarantee Fund, which now has a negative impact on interaction with international financial institutions. After all, it is not excluded that, for example, the IMF, due to dissatisfaction with the situation, began to actively demand from Ukraine to develop a procedure and hold an open competition for the position of managing director of the FGVFD.
Currently, Zima’s case has been transferred from the SBI to the Pechersk Police Department of Kyiv for investigation. The law enforcement officers informed UNN that they plan to interrogate the chief lawyer of the NBU, and after serving him a notice of suspicion, the investigators will probably apply to the court to remove Zyma from the duties of the director of the legal department of the NBU. The investigators also recognized Elena and Yulia Sosiedok as victims in this criminal proceeding, which confirmed that Zima’s actions caused damage.
Despite the seriousness of the charges, Oleksandr Zima continues to work at the National Bank and receive a sky-high salary. The question arises, are such high salaries of National Bank officials justified during the war, especially if we take into account that the official is involved in a case of abuse of power?