"Ukravtodor" case sent to court
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) have issued an indictment against the beneficiary of a group of companies charged with giving an undue advantage to the former acting head of the State Road Agency of Ukraine (Ukravtodor). His actions fall under Part 4 Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
The accused personally and via his intermediaries systematically gave undue advantage to the acting head of Ukravtodor. The latter, in turn, green-lighted payments to the company under the agreement for the capital repair of the Kyiv-Odesa highway, as well as agreed to postpone the deadline for such works and did not take measures to terminate the agreement over the existing violations. In total, as established by NABU and SAPO, USD 575 thousand and EUR 70 thousand was transferred during 2017-2019.
On April 13, 2021, the beneficiary of a group of companies was served with a notice of suspicion.
In September 2021, the case file was disclosed to the defense for perusal.
According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is considered non-guilty in the commission of a crime and cannot be subject to criminal punishment until he or she is found guilty by court.
For reference
NABU has been investigating the abovementioned facts since September 2019. After it became clear that the same facts were also being investigated by the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau of Poland, in November 2019, a joint investigation team was set up, which included NABU Detectives and SAPO Prosecutors as well as their Polish counterparts from the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau and the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw. The coordination of the work of both parties was carried out by Eurojust.
As a result of a joint operation in the summer of 2020, a criminal group led by the ex-Ukravtodor head was exposed.
In January 2021, the case file regarding the ex-top official, who has Polish citizenship, was sent to Poland for the pretrial investigation to be completed.
It should be mentioned that in November 2020, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine signed an agreement with the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Poland to continue the work of the joint investigation team established by the countries' anti-corruption agencies. This allowed the Detectives of the National Bureau and their Polish colleagues to obtain new evidence in the case.
Read more about the Ukravtodor case here.