Ukraine anti-corruption watchdog to probe MP’s three lottery wins

A populist politician in Ukraine is coming under fire after public disclosures revealed he’d won the lottery three times in the past year.

On Tuesday, Radical Party leader Oleh Lyashko revised his income declaration on the website of the nation’s anti-corruption watchdog, in keeping with new rules designed to keep lawmakers and public sector employees from dipping their grubby fingers too deep into the nation’s collective piggybank.

Lyashko’s revised declaration revealed that he’d collected three Ukrainian National Lottery (UNL) payouts over the past year, worth Hr 283,560 (US $10,600), H4 153,485 and Hr 134k, for total lottery winnings of over Hr 571k ($21,300).

Following the revelation, former parliamentary deputy Evgen Zhovtya went on 112 TV to call for an investigation into “whether this lottery is a fraudulent organization with which only politicians of Lyashko’s rank can win.” Zhovtya claimed the likelihood of Lyashko legitimately winning three prizes was “the stuff of fantasy.”