Case description
On January 31, 2023, the HACC found Dmytro Sus, a former Prosecutor General's Office official, guilty of seizing property during searches of gambling establishments by abuse of office. He was imprisoned for 9 years, and later the HACC Appeals Chamber reduced the sentence to 7 years.
Dmytro Sus is a former deputy head of a department at the Prosecutor General's Office. He investigated the cases of the former Minister of Ecology Zlochevskyi and Rinat Akhmetov's company. The NABU and the Prosecutor General's Office had a serious “quarrel” over the investigation against him.
This story has been going on since the spring of 2016: the NABU became interested in Sus after an investigation by Nashi Groshi journalists. They say the former official used the car, but it was officially registered to his 85-year-old grandmother. Accordingly, the car did not appear in Sus's declaration, and its market value at the time of purchase in January 2015 was UAH 864,000.
The investigation sparked a dispute between the two agencies, which later resulted in an open conflict. Subordinates from the Prosecutor General's Office reported surveillance, and the NABU responded by filing charges of torture against its employees. Representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office tried to visit the NABU with searches, and then a clash occurred between the representatives of the agencies.
Eventually, then - Prosecutor General Lutsenko dismissed Sus for systematic violations of the laws “On Prevention of Corruption” and “On the Prosecutor's Office,” the rules of prosecutorial ethics, and actions that discredit the title of prosecutor.
A year after the scandal, in July 2017, the NABU detained Sus at Boryspil Airport when he was on his way to Turkey on vacation and posted a photo of the plane a few hours before the arrival of the operatives. He was suspected of abuse of office and failure to declare an SUV.
On October 28, 2020, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine issued a scandalous decision to abolish criminal liability for false declarations. Therefore, this episode of his case was closed.
In another part of the case, Dmytro Sus was accused of misappropriating property worth UAH 814,000, namely over UAH 200,000 and USD 9,000 in cash, gambling equipment, and furniture seized from illegal casinos in Kyiv and the region. Then Sus allegedly sold slot machines, poker and roulette tables, bar stools, and other seized items for USD 10,000.
The former official was charged with Article 191, part 3; Article 191, part 4; and Article 191, part 5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Dmytro Sus was sent to prison for 9 years with confiscation of all his property and a ban on holding certain positions for 3 years.
The court of appeal reconsidered the sentence and reduced the main punishment to 7 years in prison. Sus appealed this decision to the Supreme Court, and the cassation proceedings are ongoing.
