Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story mistakenly stated that Mykola Shkiray received a free car from the Kyiv City Council, while it actually was the Kyiv State Administration.
Mykola Shkiray, a judge with the Holosiivskyi District Court of Kyiv, has received a free Mercedes car from the Kyiv State Administration. The gift was a part of a program that gives humanitarian aid to disabled people, according to the investigative journalists of Bihus.Info.
In April, the social policy department of Kyiv State Administration granted Shkiray a 2015 Mercedes-Benz C180 worth at least $35,000 as a humanitarian aid. The judge has a disability of the second degree, which means he can’t move without the help of other people or special devices.
The judge appeared to have made a mistake when reporting the car in his online declaration.
In his declaration, Shkiray identified the Mercedes as his work car that he uses but doesn’t own. But the car register of the Interior Ministry shows that the judge actually owns the car.
Shkiray hasn’t responded to the Kyiv Post’s request for comment yet.
Spokesperson of the Holosiivskyi District Court of Kyiv Vernygora Lilia said that Shkiray is currently on vacation and will be back in office on May 2.
The government order which regulates the provision of disabled people with cars reads that a car must be immediately legally tied to the person who receives it and can’t be taken back.
According to his declaration, Shkiray owns some expensive property, which led the journalists to question his eligibility to receive a free car.
Shkiray owns a Salpa Laver 31.5 boat. He declared that he bought it for some $17,000, including the customs fee, but pre-used boats of this type are offered online at the minimum price of $60,000.
According to his declaration, Shkiray makes Hr 26,000, or about $1,000, a month at his work in the court.
Despite his modest salary, Shkiray owns an Ulysse Nardin watch and stores $31,000 in cash.
The judge also owns some real estate: a garage of 38 square meters in Sevastopol, a two-hectare land plot in Mykolaiv Oblast, and an 86-square-meter flat with a parking lot in Kyiv — all of it, as the declaration claims, was granted to him by an unnamed person or entity in 2012.
