The NABU and the SAPO have charged MP Serhii Kuzminykh with accepting a UAH 558,000 bribe from a private company representative in exchange for securing a tender award for the procurement of ultrasound systems. He faces up to five years in prison.
In the fall of 2021, a representative of a private company was informed that supplying medical equipment to hospitals in Zhytomyr Region would first need to be cleared with MP Kuzminykh. The MP offered his assistance in securing favorable decisions — which in practice meant guaranteeing tender wins for budget-funded equipment procurement.
The municipal enterprise Hospital No. 2 named after V.P. Pavlusenko, the first target of the arrangement, subsequently procured UAH 40 million worth of medical equipment under terms agreed between Kuzminykh and the company representative. The MP indicated that his services were to be compensated at 30% of the contract value with the hospital.
In December 2021, the hospital encountered a funding delay that prevented it from settling part of the payment on time. Kuzminykh informed the company representative and advised entering into new contracts with the hospital, allowing it to pay once state budget funds were received the following year.
As soon as the MP learned that payment had been received for an ultrasound system delivered to the hospital, he reminded the representative that it was time to settle up for his "services" — specifically, the 30% cut amounting to UAH 558,000 — and indicated that the same arrangement would apply to future contracts. The total kickback exposure across all anticipated contracts exceeded UAH 12 million.
At the end of January 2022, Serhii Kuzminykh was caught in the act of accepting the UAH 558,000 bribe. He could not be detained immediately due to parliamentary immunity.
For more details on how the crime was carried out, watch this video.
Serhii Kuzminykh's conduct is charged under Article 369-2(2) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
After his detention, Kuzminykh ignored three NABU subpoenas and was placed on the wanted list, before eventually appearing at NABU and being detained. When prosecutors subsequently attempted to serve him with the indictment, he threw the documents out of a car window.
In September 2022, a NABU detective discussed the case in a podcast episode. The defense filed a motion alleging that the detective had violated Kuzminykh's presumption of innocence — the court upheld the complaint.
The trial has been repeatedly adjourned due to the defendant's and defense counsel's failure to appear. Grounds for adjournment included air raid alerts, the MP's participation in plenary sessions of the Verkhovna Rada, official travel, illness, and defense counsel's involvement in other proceedings and investigative actions.
On one occasion, HACC found Kuzminykh's absence without valid excuse and imposed a UAH 6,000 fine.
Due to repeated no-shows by defense counsel, the HACC twice appointed a public defender through the Northern Interregional Center for Free Legal Aid. HACC also wrote to the Verkhovna Rada notifying it of upcoming hearing dates and of Kuzminykh's mandatory attendance.
Read more in this article.
26/09/2022
