Case description
Valerii Tomilenko, the former acting head of the State Grain Corporation, and Hryhorii Shkvyria and Yurii Seliuchenko, the directors of grain elevators, were accused of embezzling over UAH 88 million of the corporation’s funds. They were acquitted, and the verdict was upheld by the cassation instance.
Valerii Tomilenko was the acting head of the State Food and Grain Corporation (SFGCU) from December 2014 to the late April 2015. According to the investigation, in 2015, he signed two fictitious contracts for the supply of corn with Rokytnianskyi Breading Plant and Vasylkivkhlibproduct, headed by Shkvyria and Seliuchenko, respectively.
In the contracts, Tomilenko agreed to buy more than 16,000 and 11,000 tons of grain with full advance payment, while the grain elevators did not actually have any grain. Under these agreements, Tomilenko transferred a total of more than UAH 88 million belonging to the State Food and Grain Corporation.
Tomilenko's actions were classified under Article 27, part 2.3 and Article 191, part 5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and the actions of two other defendants were classified under Article 27, part 5 and Article 191, part 5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The HACC acquitted all of them, finding neither signs of collusion nor elements of the charged crime in their actions: prosecutors were unable to prove the defendants' guilt in court.
Both the appellate and the cassation instances upheld the acquittal.
