For the first time, the Higher Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) made a decision to pay a reward to a whistleblower. He will be paid 13 million 299 thousand 950 hryvnias.
This was reported by the HACC press service.
In 2020, Yevhen Shevchenko reported an attempt to bribe the heads of anti-corruption agencies for $6 million.
Also, the judges of the Higher Anti-Corruption Court approved the agreement between the prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecution (SAP) and the former first deputy head of the Kyiv Tax Service Mykola Ilyashenko.
The accused was released from serving a sentence of 5 years of imprisonment with probation and given a probationary period of 3 years.
According to the agreement, the accused undertook to cooperate in other criminal proceedings regarding a serious and especially serious crime, which is being investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), as well as to transfer UAH 50 million to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Also, the court confiscated $6 million in favor of the state, of which $5 950 000 has already been transferred to support the Armed Forces and another $50 000 will be transferred to the budget.
What is the case?
On June 12, 2020, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau reported that it had detained the "right-hand man" of one of the former officials — the man offered the director of NABU and the head of SAP a bribe of $6 million for closing the case.
At the briefing, NABU director Artem Sytnyk and SAP head Nazar Kholodnytskyi stated that they had given a bribe to close the case against Mykola Zlochevskyi. It concerned the seizure of the funds of the NBU stabilization loan issued to Real Bank. The company Burisma, whose president is Zlochevsky, denies his involvement in bribes.
According to the investigation, the first deputy head of the Department of the State Tax Service in Kyiv Mykola Ilyashenko acted as an intermediary in the case of the transfer of $6 million in bribes to the heads of the SAP and NABU. He tried to transfer a bribe for closing one of the cases against Zlochevsky. The head of the State Tax Service Oleksiy Lyubchenko removed Ilyashenko from performing his duties during the disciplinary proceedings. The higher anti-corruption court arrested Ilyashenko and set him on bail in the amount of 84 million hryvnias.
A bail of UAH 40.35 million was made for the lawyer of Burisma company Andrii Kichu, who is involved in the case of the transfer of $6 million in bribes to the heads of the SAP and NABU.
On June 16, 2020, the Higher Anti-Corruption Court chose a preventive measure for the third person involved in the case of the transfer of $6 million in bribes to the heads of the SAP and NABU — arrest with the possibility of bail in the amount of UAH 120 million. On July 1, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau informed Mykola Zlochevsky about the suspicion.