Wife of SBI department Head Heida owns real estate worth hundreds of thousands of dollars - NV Investigation Finds
The wife of the head of the SBI's Main Operations Department, Iryna Heida, owns luxury real estate worth $390,000, although she does not officially have a business.
According to Censor.NET, this is stated in an investigation by NV.
NV journalists have gained access to documents showing that Iryna, the wife of the head of the Main Operations Department of the State Bureau of Investigation, Ihor Heida, owned real estate worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. At the same time, there is no information that she does not own a business.
It is noted that there is almost no information about Ihor Heida on the Internet. There is no official biography on the SBI website. In 2020, it was reported that Ihor Heida had been appointed to the position, but the agency classified this information as proprietary, and therefore not for public disclosure.
Prior to that, Heyda was the head of the Kharkiv Antimonopoly Committee, and before that, he worked for the Security Service.
After being appointed to the SBI, Heyda hardly ever appeared in the media. Except that in 2023, he was mentioned as one of the officials who facilitated pressure on business.
Journalists were interested in the SBI official's wife, Iryna Heida. The fact is that she owns luxury real estate, and at the same time, there are no official reports about her work or her own business. She owns a spacious apartment and parking spaces in one of Kyiv's elite residential complexes, purchased in 2021 for a total price of $390 thousand.
At the same time, by the end of 2019, the couple had saved only about $37 thousand in total.
In addition, the official's wife sold a house in Kharkiv for $550 thousand 9 months after purchasing an elite Kyiv apartment, although its value, as indicated in Heida's declarations, was significantly lower - only 320 thousand UAH, or approximately $40 thousand at the exchange rate of 2012, when it was purchased.
Olena Shcherban, Head of the Legal Department at the Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC), sees signs of violations of anti-corruption legislation in the whole "immovable" story of top SBI official Heida.
Apartment in a luxury complex in the center of Kyiv
In 2021, Iryna Heida bought an apartment in the elite residential complex Boulevard of Fountains, located in Pechersk.
According to the documents available to NV, in April 2021, Iryna Heida paid $340 thousand for her apartment. A little later, in June, she purchased two parking spaces in the same residential complex for UAH 687.5 thousand each, which is about $25 thousand at the exchange rate on the date of purchase.
Residential complex "Boulevard of Fountains"
Thus, in 2021, the wife of the SBI chief operative spent $390 thousand on real estate in an elite Kyiv complex.
Currently, the official's property declarations are hidden - according to the Law on Prevention of Corruption, these documents may be withdrawn from public access, as Heyda may fall under the definition of a person directly involved in operational and investigative activities.
However, NV received the relevant documents of Heida for 2017-2019. These declarations indicate that during that period, Iryna Heyda did not work anywhere, and her husband headed the Kharkiv Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU) and additionally received a salary from the SSU. The earnings declared by Ihor Heida in 2019 - about UAH 626.5 thousand (approximately $25.5 thousand at the end of 2019), of which almost 158 thousand was pension - would not have allowed his family to purchase expensive luxury real estate.
In addition, the total amount of the family's savings was also relatively small: as of the end of 2019, it was about $37 thousand, including $35.5 thousand in cash, 28 thousand UAH in bank accounts, and another 620 euros.
"Due to the absence of Ihor Heida's declarations for 2020-2021 in the public space, the sources of income that would allow his family members to make such expensive purchases remain unknown. It looks extremely doubtful that the Heyda family was able to save more than $300 thousand in 2020 and in less than 4 months of 2021," Olena Shcherban of the AntAC explained to NV.
In addition, journalists assume that the cost of the apartment could have been artificially low, as Iryna Heyda bought it at the same price as the previous owner from the developer.
Other elite real estate
Another property of Iryna Heida also attracted the attention of journalists. In 2021, she sold an elite house in Kharkiv with an area of almost 400 square meters. According to official documents, in 2012, Heida bought it for 320 thousand hryvnias, and in 2021, she sold it for 550 thousand dollars. Journalists believe that in 2012, the price could have been artificially low, as a similar house then cost about $21 thousand.
The significant difference in the value of the property, the absence of changes in the area of the house, and the low price at the date of purchase indicate possible manipulations that may be related to tax evasion or legalization of illegal income. If the value of the house on the date of acquisition was artificially low, this may indicate the legalization of proceeds of crime through manipulation of the valuation. The sale of real estate for $550,000 in 2021 can be used to "explain" the origin of funds that were not previously declared," says Shcherban.
At the same time, the SBI told reporters that it had conducted an inspection of the property of the official's wife. The agency said that "based on the results of the logical and arithmetic verification of the declaration, no violations of anti-corruption legislation in terms of the declaration were found."
Response of the State Bureau of Investigation
NV tried to contact Ihor Heida, but the official did not respond to calls and messages from the editorial office.
Therefore, the publication sent a request to the SBI with a detailed list of questions, including the property of the official's wife.
In response to the request, representatives of the Bureau replied that they had conducted an independent check: "Based on the results of the logical and arithmetic verification of the declaration, no violations of anti-corruption legislation in terms of the declaration were found."
SBI's response to NV's request
But the questions of where the official's wife got the money to buy real estate in an elite residential complex, as well as how the couple managed to increase the value of their house in Kharkiv by more than 10 times, remained unanswered in the letter from the SBI.
In his turn, Shcherban of the AntAC questions the inspection conducted by the State Bureau.
"A significant discrepancy between the declared income and the value of the acquired assets indicates the need for a more thorough analysis, including, in particular, the study of the sources of funds and financial capacity of Ihor Heida's family. The formal nature of such an inspection, the lack of transparency, the unknown methodology of its conduct, and the possible conflict of interest raise suspicions about the SBI's reluctance to establish the real state of affairs," she explained to NV.
According to Shcherban, NAPC and NABU should be involved to ensure a full and objective verification of the compliance of Igor Heida's property status with the requirements of anti-corruption legislation.
As a reminder, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption in 2024 found inaccurate information in the declarations worth UAH 3.8 billion and signs of illicit enrichment worth UAH 192 million.
