55 new cases, five indictments sent to court – NABU and SAPO results in February 2021

In February, the NABU Detectives started pre-trial investigations into 55 criminal proceedings and served five notices of suspicion. The SAPO Prosecutors sent four indictments and a motion for relief from liability to court. Three judgements of conviction in NABU and SAPO cases took effect.

Last month the NABU Detectives notified three PrivatBank ex-officials of suspicion of embezzling over UAH 136.89 million. The notices of suspicion were signed by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. It was due to the efforts of the head of the group of Detectives and the NABU Director, who addressed the State Aviation Service, that the plane with a PrivatBank ex-Deputy Head was made to land at Boryspil airport, where the ex-official was detained.

The NABU Detectives notified a Former Deputy Director of the Ukrainian State Research and Design Institute of Nitrogen Industry and Products of Organic Synthesis SE of abusing office and drawing up an untrue expert's report. The document was further used in court by Prikarpatzakhidtrans LLC to unjustifiably take possession of the Ukrainian part of the Samara-Western Direction oil product pipeline being of great economic and defense importance. Thus, following a motion of the NABU Detectives and SAPO Prosecutors, the High Anti-Corruption Court arrested the property of the technological complex of the Samara-Western Direction oil product pipeline located on Ukraine's territory. 

During the last month, the NABU Detectives completed probes into:

• receiving an improper advantage by the Former head of the Chernihiv Regional State Administration;
• causing more than UAH 16.5 million losses to the “Boryspil International Airport” State Enterprise.

Indictments in the following cases were sent to court:

• receiving USD 50 thousand of improper advantage by an official of the State Fiscal Service and his middleman;
• giving an improper advantage to the Acting Head of the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management;
• illegal alienation of UAH 20 million, which has been seized by court and is to be refunded to the state budget.

The National Bureau together with the State Tax Service and the State Border Guard Service in Odesa Region prevented the illegal refund of UAH 674 million of value added tax to companies involved in a corruption scheme for importing and customs clearance of goods in Ukraine.

In February, NABU Director Artem Sytnyk and SAPO Acting Head Maksym Hryshchuk reported about the results of work of Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies for the second half of 2020. Thus, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office launched 386 criminal proceedings, served 76 persons with notices of suspicion, filed 35 indictments regarding 56 persons, and refunded more than UAH 370 million. The economic effect of NABU and SAPO work in 2020 reaches almost UAH 2 billion. The Directors of NABU’s territorial offices in Kharkiv, Odesa and Lviv reported about their results in 2020 at briefings with the participation of the public and media.