The High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) found MP from "Servant of the People" Andriy Odarchenko guilty of trying to bribe the ex-head of the State Agency for Recovery Mustafa Nayem with bitcoins. The judge sentenced the MP to eight years of imprisonment.
This decision was made at todayʼs meeting.
This is the first time that anti-corruption authorities have recorded a bribe in cryptocurrency.
The defense argued that without Nayemʼs provocation, the crime would not have happened. Earlier, during interrogation in court, Odarchenko admitted that he had indeed offered a bribe, but Nayem allegedly forced him to do it, as he convinced him that otherwise the money would not be allocated. According to the defenders, Nayem has been working confidentially with law enforcement agencies since 2023.
The defense requested that Odarchenko be acquitted due to the fact that there is no proper and admissible evidence of the presence of a crime in his actions.
However, the prosecutor noted that Odarchenko reported the provocation only after he left Ukraine. In her opinion, the recorded conversations between him and Nayem do not contain signs of provocation, and Odarchenko offered a bribe to Nayem several times. The prosecution asked the court for a 10-year prison sentence for Odarchenko with the deprivation of the right to hold certain positions and the confiscation of all property.
Odarchenkoʼs case
On November 21, 2023, MP Andriy Odarchenko was informed of the suspicion of an attempt to bribe the then head of the State Agency for Recovery and Development of the Infrastructure of Ukraine Mustafa Nayem. It is about a bribe in Bitcoin cryptocurrency equivalent to $50 000.
Andriy Odarchenko insists that he appealed to the then Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov to allocate money from the Liquidation Fund to repair the buildings of the State Biotechnology University, of which he was the rector at that time. The figure in the case says that it was Kubrakov who directed him to the then head of the State Recovery Mustafa Nayem.
Already on November 22, HACC of Ukraine chose a precautionary measure for the MP in the form of detention with an alternative bail of 15 million hryvnias. And on November 24, Odarchenko was bailed.
On September 18, it became known that Odarchenko did not appear before the court and illegally left the country.
On September 23, HACC collected the bail posted for Odarchenko and arrested him in absentia.
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