Corruption in the Supreme Court. Defense of ex-convict Prokopenko denies that he had a conversation with Knyazev about participating in the scheme

The defense of retired judge Oleksandr Prokopenko denies that he had a meeting with former Supreme Court Chairman Vsevolod Knyazev, where he suggested he participate in the scheme.

Prokopenkoʼs defense lawyer spoke about this at a meeting of the Supreme Court of Criminal Appeals, which considered the suspectʼs bail.

Prokopenko is suspected of receiving a bribe of $50 000 for a decision in favor of businessman Kostyantyn Zhevaho in 2023 in the Poltava Mining and Processing Plant case.

At the trial, his lawyer read out the minutes of Knyazev’s interrogation, in which he said that he met with Prokopenko between March 15, 2023 and April 19, 2023 (he does not remember the exact date) and then suggested that he vote for a decision in favor of Kostyantyn Zhevaho. According to Knyazev, Prokopenko replied that he would think about it. However, the defense denies that such a meeting and conversation even took place.

The defense also drew attention to another fact: during interrogation, Knyazev told how he packed the bribe in black plastic folders. It was these folders that were later found during searches at the residences of two other suspects — judges Iryna Hryhorieva and Zhanna Yelenina. No such folder was found at Prokopenkoʼs, the defense attorney says.

In addition, according to the lawyer, Knyazev said during interrogation that he invented the distribution of bribes among judges — to create the impression that a larger number of judges were involved in the scheme than in reality.

The decision on bail for Prokopenko will be reported tomorrow. The prosecutor is requesting bail of UAH 10.7 million.

Corruption case in the Supreme Court

In May 2023, NABU and SAPO reported that they had uncovered a corruption scheme in the Supreme Court. Among those involved was the then-Chairman of the Supreme Court Vsevolod Knyazev, who was caught taking a record $3 million bribe.

NABU said that the case is related to decisions in favor of businessman Kostyantyn Zhevaho in the case of the Poltava Mining and Processing Plant. Zhevaho bought the plant in 2002, but the companyʼs former shareholders decided to challenge the purchase and sale agreement for 40.19% of the shares.

The court initially dismissed the claim, but in 2022, an appeal overturned the decision and declared the contract invalid. The case then went to the Supreme Court, which in April 2023 decided to leave Zhevaho with 40% of the Poltava Mining and Processing Complex. The investigation alleges that the businessman bribed judges to obtain this decision.

The press service of Kostyantyn Zhevaho told Babel that the shareholder of “Ferrexpo” has nothing to do with this situation, and the information that the bribe could have been given by people acting in the interests of the businessman is false.

They state that the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court adopted a resolution dated April 19, 2023, which recognized the legality of the acquisition of Poltava Mining and Processing Complex by “Ferrexpo” in 2002, not in the interests of Zhevaho, but "in the interests of a large, public company with respectable shareholders, which is traded on the main platform of the London Stock Exchange".

On May 19, NABU and SAPO declared new suspicions in the case of large-scale corruption in the Supreme Court: three current judges and one retired judge. Babelʼs sources told that these are judges of the Grand Chamber Ihor Zhelezny, Iryna Hryhorieva and Zhanna Yelenina, as well as Oleksandr Prokopenko, who has been retired since 2024.

On May 21, it became known that Prokopenko had re-registered the apartment on May 16 for his son, the NABU detective Bohdan Prokopenko. NABU responded that this detective was not part of the investigative group investigating the case and did not have access to the case materials. The bureau is conducting an internal investigation.

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