A former advisor to the Presidentʼs Office (OP) was sentenced to eight years in prison, but was allowed to skip serving the sentence with a probationary period of three years. As Babel was told by the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC), this is Artem Shylo. He is suspected of embezzling UAH 94.8 million from “Ukrzaliznytsia" (UZ).
This was reported by HACC and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office (SAPO).
The former advisor of OP was also banned from holding managerial and administrative positions in military formations and law enforcement agencies for three years and was fined UAH 204 million.
Shylo must report any changes in his place of residence, work, or study and not travel abroad without approval. Under the terms of the agreement, he undertook to:
- to compensate UAH 60 million in damages;
- transfer UAH 80 million to the "Come Back Alive" charity fund;
- provide NABU with information about another crime known to him and assist in its investigation.
In addition, the court confiscated his three apartments in Kyiv with a total area of 388.1 m² in favor of the state and recovered UAH 325.78 million.
More about the scheme
On April 2, 2024, law enforcement officers exposed an organized group led by a former advisor to the OP — it was about the appropriation of “Ukrzaliznytsia” funds during the purchase of transformers during martial law.
According to SAPO and NABU, this company supplied goods at an inflated price. According to the investigation, the organizer of the group was former freelance advisor to OP Artem Shylo.
The transformers were purchased through a brokerage firm from a manufacturer partly owned by companies from Russia, and then resold to “Ukrzaliznytsia” at twice the price. As a result, UZ suffered losses of UAH 94.8 million.
Since 2012, Shylo has worked for SBU. First in Kharkiv, and since 2016 in Kyiv, in the department for combating cybercrime. In 2021, he was dismissed from service and became a freelance advisor of OP.
However, a year later, he returned to SBU and immediately headed the newly created Main Directorate for Counterintelligence Protection of Critical Infrastructure and Countering Terrorist Financing.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.