According to the prosecution, in 2013–2014 former Justice Minister Olena Lukash, by prior conspiracy with a group of persons, misappropriated Ukrainian state budget funds allocated by the Ministry of Justice to procure services needed to implement the National Program for the Adaptation of Ukraine's Legislation to that of the European Union, approved by a Law of Ukraine on March 18, 2004.

In 2013–2014, these Ministry of Justice officials embezzled UAH 2.52 million in budget funds intended for the adaptation of national legislation to EU legislation. The defendants transferred the money to European Legal Group LLC and a number of individual entrepreneurs without sufficient legal grounds.

Olha Stefanishyna — a former Deputy Prime Minister, and at the time an employee of the European Integration Department — together with Olena Lukash, the former Justice Minister under Yanukovych, organized and conducted the tender to procure these services. By her own account, she initiated studies on the subject of European integration. According to investigative journalists from Nashi Hroshi, the quality of the work, in which one page cost from UAH 1,500 to 4,500, does not look satisfactory.

The investigation into these circumstances began back in 2014, when Olena Lukash first became a suspect in criminal proceedings handled by the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine. In 2019, the case was handed to the NABU, and on October 17, 2019, PGO prosecutor Viktor Chumak served Olena Lukash with a notice of change to the previously served notice of suspicion.

In September 2023, the case was referred to the HACC for consideration on the merits, accompanied by numerous motions to recuse judges and challenges to jurisdiction tied to open disciplinary proceedings before the HCJ.

Who else is involved in the case?

In 2019, the circle of suspects expanded considerably. In addition to Olena Lukash, notices of suspicion were served on:

• Yurii Ivashchenko — Lukash’s deputy, former Chief of Staff of the Ministry
• Serhii Mudryi — former Director of one of the Ministry’s departments
• Olena Biriukova — former Department Director, former Chief Accountant, and former Deputy Chair of the Tender Committee
• Svitlana Kolyshko — former Head of the Division of the Department of International Law and Cooperation of the Ministry of Justice
• Olha Stefanishyna — former Head of the Ministry’s European Integration Unit, later Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration and Minister of Justice
• Oleksii Kalmykov — lawyer who received UAH 930,000 for a 500-page study
• Hanna Sapelnykova — entrepreneur who received UAH 680,000 for 149 pages of material
• Taisiia Bilotska — former Acting Director of European Legal Group LLC, which received over UAH 900,000 for a 686-page study
• Bohdan Kryvolapov, Andrii Bondar, and Viktoriia Koval.

In October–November 2023, the High Anti-Corruption Court released some of the defendants from liability for forgery in office, as the statute of limitations for that offense had already expired.

Olha Stefanishyna commented on the case as follows:

Lukash, Stefanishyna, and their accomplices are charged under Article 191(5) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. For the other charged offense — forgery in office — the statute of limitations has already expired.

What is Olha Stefanishyna known for?

From June 2020 to September 2024, Olha Stefanishyna served as Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine in Denys Shmyhal’s government. After that, until July 2025, she held the position of Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration — Minister of Justice of Ukraine.

Following the change of government in July 2025, she was dismissed from this post. On August 27, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Stefanishyna as Ukraine’s new Ambassador to the United States. Olha Stefanishyna is currently in the United States and takes part in the court hearings by videoconference.