Ternopil tax officials detained over a 'found a violation — pay and forget' scheme: €75,000 and a VAT kickback

Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) has exposed a corruption scheme at the Main Directorate of the State Tax Service (STS) in the Ternopil region. According to the investigation, the deputy head of the regional STS directorate and the head of one of its territorial units built a systematic model of enrichment through tax audits. This was reported on 15 September 2026 by RBC-Ukraine, citing the NABU press service. Both officials were detained under Article 208 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine, and they have been formally notified of suspicion under Part 4 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code (receiving improper benefit by an official).

The scheme: 'million-scale violations' for a fee

According to the investigators' version, the officials deliberately 'found' allegedly multi-million-scale violations of tax legislation at the companies being audited. Once the violation report was drawn up, the officials offered business representatives a substantial reduction of the penalty amounts in the official documents — for a corresponding fee. In this way, a tax audit was turned from a control tool into a source of personal income: first a threat of a large fine was created, and then 'rescue' from it was sold for money. Over the spring and summer of 2026, the perpetrators received improper benefit from a representative of two enterprises totalling €75,000.

An 11.5% kickback on VAT refund: the moment of detention

The key episode in which the suspects were caught by law enforcement took place in June 2026. The tax officials demanded a 'kickback' of 11.5% of the amount of an unimpeded budgetary VAT refund, which exceeded 14.6 million hryvnia. The transfer of money was carried out through an intermediary. It was precisely at the moment of the transfer of the improper benefit that NABU officers documented the crime and detained both officials. According to the investigation, the scheme did not operate on a one-off basis but was systematic, as confirmed by the body of episodes from the spring and summer of 2026.

Legal qualification and further investigation

The deputy head of the Main Directorate of the STS in the Ternopil region and the head of the territorial unit have been notified of suspicion under Part 4 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — receiving improper benefit by an official in an especially large amount. This part of the article provides for a punishment of deprivation of liberty for a term of five to ten years with disqualification from holding certain positions. The investigation is ongoing: the possible involvement of other officials of the Main Directorate of the STS in the Ternopil region in the described scheme is being examined. Photographs of the detention have been published on the official NABU website (nabu.gov.ua).

Context: a series of anti-corruption exposures in Ukraine

The exposure in the Ternopil region fits into a series of high-profile anti-corruption cases uncovered in Ukraine in 2026. Recently, NABU and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) exposed a scheme for the production and sale of the falsified weight-loss drug 'Biopatid' worth 5 million dollars, in which 27 participants were notified of suspicion, including the mastermind of the scheme and the owner of a Kyiv clinic. In parallel, the SBU uncovered a corruption scheme in the Luhansk regional military administration, where officials attempted to appropriate 5 million hryvnia of budget funds through the imitation of competition in state procurement. The perpetrators in this case face up to eight years of imprisonment. The totality of these cases indicates that anti-corruption bodies continue to work purposefully in the sphere of the tax system and state procurement.