Flushing money down the toilet: Lviv Regional council deputy caught taking a bribe

A deputy of the Lviv Regional Council has been detained on suspicion of extorting money from a local entrepreneur.

This information reported according to Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).

Media reports identify the suspect as Volodymyr Domansky from Petro Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party.

According to the investigation, Domansky and the deputy mayor of one of the territorial communities allegedly demanded 1.2 million hryvnias (€27,500) in exchange for guaranteeing the businessman’s victory in a tender for construction work. The businessman refused and won the tender independently.

The officials then allegedly pretended that they had secured his victory and began extorting money from him. They were detained during the transfer of funds.

Photos from the search suggest that one of the suspects attempted to flush the money down the toilet.

Earlier, in Kyiv, a senior member of the UDAR party was detained for allegedly soliciting a $1 million bribe. According to investigators, the politician promised to resolve a land dispute with officials from the Kyiv City State Administration in exchange for the money. Specifically, he guaranteed that the businessman would be granted a lease for a plot of land in a recreational area near the Dnipro River.

Additionally, the SBI previously uncovered a scheme in which false military deferments were issued to men at a state energy enterprise in exchange for bribes.