Fake letters from “concerned citizens” as grounds for tax and other checks

  Ihor Koliushko, Head of the Centre for Political and Legal Reform writes that he received a letter on 23 May from the Verkhovna Rada Office telling him that “his” letter to the Verkhovna Rada had been received and sent for consideration to the Cabinet of Ministers Secretariat.

The first name, patronymic and last name were all correct.  There were, however, two problems.  Instead of the name of his organization, the letter gave “Freedom House Ukraine”, nor had Mr Koliushko sent any such letter.

Believing it to be a simple mistake, he rang the Verkhovna Rada where he was assured that all was correct, they had received a letter addressed to 13 State bodies with his signature and Freedom House underneath.

He asked people on Facebook what this was all about and got the answer that it was normal practice for the tax and other control bodies.

He decided he had to react, after all they couldn’t falsify documents quite so brazenly.

Returning from a business trip on 29 May he found two letters from the Cabinet of Ministers and Prosecutor General’s Office.  Both informed of a letter supposedly from himself regarding the legality of the actions of officials of the Lutsk Automobile Factory; and the Cherkasy Bus share companies and other issues.

Ihor Koliushko says that he hadn’t had time to put the new information on Facebook when on 31 May he read on Ukrainska Pravda that the tax police had been carrying out a check of the Lutsk Automobile Factory (linked with Petro Poroshenko) and when challenged had claimed that they were simply responding to a letter from a member of the public

It would thus appear, Mr Koliushko writes, that the law enforcement agencies are manufacturing grounds for carrying out checks.

He is preparing a letter to the Prosecutor’s Office demanding:

1) a stop to unlawful activities by control agencies based on fictitious appeals;

2) a copy of what is supposed to be his letter and that they find those responsible for producing it.

He says that only ascertaining the source of this provocation, will it be possible to determine whether he should take the matter to court and the amount of moral compensation sought.

Ihor Koliushko’s report of this, together with copies of the official letters, can be found in Ukrainian at http://pravda.com.ua/columns/2012/06/1/6965773/