652 Ukrainian officials declare holding a total of 46,351 BTC

[skarais]

The Ukrainian government really need to be busy finding out about the behavior of their official who own a lot of bitcoin. If the official is found to have committed an illegal act by buying a lot of bitcoin, the government must be able to prove that this official bought bitcoin from corruption. Money laundering case may be carried out by official of a country at bitcoin, but they are not smart enough because they may forget that bitcoin is not completely anonymous.
If the government cannot prove that its official have been carrying out illegal activities, it mean the owner of bitcoin are very smart people and know about the potential future of bitcoin when they buy it.

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[Renampun]

...

this is an incredible amount, how do they get these Bitcoins...
whether all the Bitcoin they got was the result of 'money laundering'. but I do not understand what their reasons are so that they have to confess like this. whether Ukraine will support Bitcoin!

[hatshepsut93]

people in the government (no matter the country) know better than anyone else about the dire situation in the economy or the corruption that runs deep in the banking system. so it is not surprising to see many of them actually chose to have some of their net worth in bitcoin although i am a bit skeptical about the total amount that is reported here.

People in the government really like to receive bribes and embezzle funds, but it would very stupid of them to store their wealth in cash or bank accounts, so they get creative and purchase properties for their relatives, open offshore bank accounts, and so on and so on, including investing in Bitcoin. They aren't buying Bitcoin because they have no faith in the economy.

[Kittygalore]

this is an incredible amount, how do they get these Bitcoins...
whether all the Bitcoin they got was the result of 'money laundering'. but I do not understand what their reasons are so that they have to confess like this. whether Ukraine will support Bitcoin!

It is an incredible amount and I think everyone in this thread is asking the same question, how did they get those bitcoins, I don't really put too much reliance on my hunch but something tells me that the source of this bitcoin might be of criminal origin and since they are politician and the word corruption is the spouse of the word politician, I am pretty sure that there is something as to how they got those bitcoins.

[lovesmayfamilis]

I don't get the part about tax evasion

There is a version that officials declared their non-existent bitcoins in order to explain their future high income. And we all understand where they intend to get these incomes. But to explain the appearance of their income, they will be that they acquired bitcoins at a small price in 2020, and since then bitcoins have grown.
https://t.me/gen_m/1342
And fears are also expressed that when bitcoin rises to a million dollars, these officials will have to seriously fear for their lives since everyone has said how much they own.

[Lucius]

Probably not. You're ignoring the fact that most of the expendable wealth are concentrated in those with power and the normal citizen probably wouldn't even use Bitcoin. It is not an accurate way to estimate Bitcoin's usage in a specific country.

I know from personal experience that Bitcoin is very popular in Ukraine among the general population, and I know this from the amount of traffic coming from there to faucets. Today, that percentage is around 20%, similar to the data for Russia, which together make up over 40% of all traffic on faucets and PTC. Of course, some may interpret it differently, but it is certain that there is great interest in cryptocurrencies - but given the purchasing power of citizens, they are trying to reach them in other ways.

I recently had one campaign across one popular PTC site and 18% of all visits were from Ukraine.

[xZork]

The 652 Ukrainian officials hold a total of 46,351 BTC which is an impressive number.
If the Ukrainian legal authorities want to know if this is money laundering or not they just need to investigate the source of the money for these people to buy BTC, everything will be clear.

[TastyChillySauce00]

The 652 Ukrainian officials hold a total of 46,351 BTC which is an impressive number.
If the Ukrainian legal authorities want to know if this is money laundering or not they just need to investigate the source of the money for these people to buy BTC, everything will be clear.

Since the bitcoin's blockchain is more or less transparent I do agree, it's possible to identify even from where they got or buy btc from. the perk of having transparent blockchain I guess, rather than untraceable paper money, but if those officials are shady enought they might do some shady tricks but I guess it's just a tip of an iceberg, same with any other countries officials.

[Vishnu.Reang]

So we can confidentially say that Ukrainians own 3% to 6% of the circulating supply of BTC. This is a massive number and may be higher than the same from other countries such as India and Taiwan.

You should take into account that Ukrainian politicians and ordinary people do not share the same standard when it comes to business opportunities and, more importantly, the amount of monthly income. The average salary in developed parts of the country is about $450, but that amount is much lower in less developed parts of the country. Usually in such countries, ordinary people do not have the opportunity to invest anything in risky assets such as Bitcoin, but it would be really nice if some of them managed to buy and save BTC over the years.

Therefore, I sincerely doubt that Ukrainians have approximately close to 3% of all mined BTC, let alone more than that.

I agree to an extent with your post. But what about the possibility that most of the ordinary people acquired Bitcoin, when it was trading at very low prices, especially before 2016? The former USSR region was one of the places where the earliest Bitcoin adoption occurred. BTC-e exchange was based in Kiev during the initial years, before moving their office to Bulgaria. If 652 Ukrainians can have 0.3% of all the Bitcoin in circulation, then I would say that it is quite possible that the remaining 40-42 million may posses at least 3% to 4%.

[stompix]

There is a version that officials declared their non-existent bitcoins in order to explain their future high income. And we all understand where they intend to get these incomes. But to explain the appearance of their income, they will be that they acquired bitcoins at a small price in 2020, and since then bitcoins have grown.

So how will they explain this if they haven't actually purchased them?
I bought 100 BTC at 4000 and sold them at 60 000 BTC, good, but where did you get those $400 000 and when did you send the money to that exchange?  And there is one bigger problem if the price continues to rise and you don't actually have bought the coins, laws can change with a regime change and you might have to show proof of the ownership, you will have to cling to those fake numbers you claim and never say you sold any as the profit would be enormous and you would have to pay it entirely out of your pocket.

Of course, I don't know that much about the laws in Ukraine but to me, it seems like a really bad way to do it, an easy to trace and debunk way of trying to launder money without actually touching the coins. Want to get away with this easy? Use the dirty money to buy real coins anonymously then send them to a real exchange dump them and here you have it, unless they try to trace every damn coin and ATM receipt your story checks out.

 

[DigitalFox]

US & EU loans to Ukraine well spent. How nice. And they always demand more loans.

[int03h]

An impressive number, what did they do to get 46k Bitcoins? Accept bribes or disperse property they have stolen from the state.
If all the countries have politicians, officials who own Bitcoin like that, they really are getting rich quickly. The rich get richer, and most of them are bad people.
Am I thinking of whether Chinese officials are doing the same thing to Ukrainian officials? China is a developed country with a very large economic scale, bribery has happened before in this country and this activity is more sophisticated than ever.

[Poker Player]

US & EU loans to Ukraine well spent. How nice. And they always demand more loans.

LOL. I don't know if it is true, but it sounds plausible because after all this is what usually happens with much of the money printed in this money-debt system we have: it ends up inflating the price of financial assets.

[Lucius]

If 652 Ukrainians can have 0.3% of all the Bitcoin in circulation, then I would say that it is quite possible that the remaining 40-42 million may posses at least 3% to 4%.

Let’s say you’re right and Ukrainians actually bought Bitcoin while its value was only a few hundred $, what percentage do you think kept their coins after 2017? I think few have managed to resist the $20 000 price, which doesn’t mean they haven’t taken advantage of the long crypto winter to re-accumulate - although given average salaries it hasn’t been easy to buy BTC at prices above $3000. In any case, this question may never get an answer, but it would be nice if ordinary people really benefited from Bitcoin.

US & EU loans to Ukraine well spent. How nice. And they always demand more loans.

A good comparison, but if politicians spent the donated money on buying BTC, at least they have proof of where the money came from. Some might say, well spent money

The EU, together with its Member States, has since last year delivered unprecedented levels of support to help Ukraine in its efforts for launching this renewed reform process. In March last year, the EU and European Financial Institutions committed EUR 11 billion in support of Ukraine’s political, economic and financial stabilisation. So far, around EUR 6 billion has been mobilised in the form of loans and grants, including the recently approved additional third macro-financial assistance programme of EUR 1.8 billion. The EU is both currently and since the country's independence the biggest international donor to Ukraine.

[aesma]

Bitcoin isn't that anonymous,so those government officials must be really stupid,thinking that they could successfully launder their money by buying BTC.

It's possible to buy some old coins that haven't been touched for years and their private key on OTC markets for some premium, transfer them to your own wallet, and then claim that you have owned them for years and even present a signature as a "proof"

This seems like a smart move,but I haven't seen people,who are selling old coins inside a wallet+private keys.
I don't think that the Ukrainian government officials are that smart and tech savvy.
They have even declared ownership of the BTC,which is weird.Why would they declare something they want to hide?This doesn't make any sense.

They're declaring ownership BECAUSE it's money laundering, so that they can justify their spending, millions appearing on their bank accounts, etc.

To be honest if they're that rich, it's time to leave Ukraine.

[Ozero]

US & EU loans to Ukraine well spent. How nice. And they always demand more loans.

Well noticed. A significant part of these loans has always been stolen by officials. Moreover, other officials only record this and for some reason cannot find the perpetrators, although this is always documented and easily tracked. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the level of corruption in Ukraine is one of the highest in the world.
The judicial system in this country is especially unique. There they were so worried about the independence of judges that now the judicial system of Ukraine is a state within a state and even controls political processes, canceling any decisions of the authorities at its discretion. Therefore, even the president and the motley legislative body of Ukraine can do nothing with the Constitutional Court and some of the capital's judges, who began to openly make anti-Ukrainian decisions and change the domestic and foreign policy of this state.

[DigitalFox]

US & EU loans to Ukraine well spent. How nice. And they always demand more loans.

Well noticed. A significant part of these loans has always been stolen by officials. Moreover, other officials only record this and for some reason cannot find the perpetrators, although this is always documented and easily tracked. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the level of corruption in Ukraine is one of the highest in the world.
The judicial system in this country is especially unique. There they were so worried about the independence of judges that now the judicial system of Ukraine is a state within a state and even controls political processes, canceling any decisions of the authorities at its discretion. Therefore, even the president and the motley legislative body of Ukraine can do nothing with the Constitutional Court and some of the capital's judges, who began to openly make anti-Ukrainian decisions and change the domestic and foreign policy of this state.

It's pure coincidence (it has to be, innit?) Biden's son gets paid wads of cash for being a "consultant" to a couple of most expensive development projects in Ukraine worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I'm sure it's safe to say he achieved it all purely by himself and no corruption whatsoever was involved.

[jerrison]

The whole world is coming to terms with the fact that crypto and blockchain technology and its importance. Industries and investors are committing loads of resources towards procuring Bitcoin because its the future.

Source: https://t.me/zedigital/654

Ukraine's Minister of Digital Transformation said on Telegram that 652 Ukrainian officials declared holding a total of 46,351 BTC. He commented that either they are lying to launder their money, or there are more progressive investors in Ukraine than he thought.

It's been known for a long time that some Ukrainian members of Parliament and other officials invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but the full scale of it has never been known. It's possible that the figure is that big, if there are a lot of early investors, but it could also be like the minister said - an attempt to launder dirty money by presenting them as a profit from Bitcoin investment.

It's possible to buy some old coins that haven't been touched for years and their private key on OTC markets for some premium, transfer them to your own wallet, and then claim that you have owned them for years and even present a signature as a "proof".

[zasad@]

Russian officials ordered to get rid of cryptocurrency by April 1 2021
More details: https://eadaily.com/ru/news/2021/01/22/rossiyskih-chinovnikov-obyazali-izbavitsya-ot-kriptovalyuty-do-1-aprelya
No one will actually get rid of cryptocurrencies, but will transfer them to their relatives.
When there is data on declaring cryptocurrencies in Russia, it'll make your hair curl

[best123]

It could be either ways. But holding such amount is very amazing. That's a huge amount of Bitcoin.
The government of Ukraine should investigate to know whether they are lying or saying the truth. Money laundering impoverished the people but if the actually bought it, they should enjoy their investment. That's my take on the his issue.