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Case of politician Serhii Shcherbak on an attempt to bribe the head of the SPFU

  • Date of commencement of the case: 28/04/2020
  • Stage of criminal proceedings: Execution of sentence
  • Verdict type: Indictiment
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Case of politician Serhii Shcherbak on an attempt to bribe the head of the SPFU Case of politician Serhii Shcherbak on an attempt to bribe the head of the SPFU

Case description

On May 28, 2020, the HACC found Serhii Shcherbak guilty of an attempt to bribe Sennychenko, the then head of the State Property Fund, together with other persons. The accused received 5 years of suspended imprisonment with a probationary period of 3 years.

Serhii Shcherbak is a politician who twice unsuccessfully ran for the Verkhovna Rada, in 1998 and 2007. At the end of 2019, he, together with Valerii Trots and Vitalii Kolesnikov, offered ex-head of the SPFU Dmytro Sennychenko USD 5 mln in bribes in exchange for the appointment of a certain person as the director of the Odesa Portside Plant (almost 100% owned by the state). The new head would have to facilitate the conclusion of contracts between the Plant and private companies associated with the persons involved in this crime.

In January 2020, NABU detectives caught all three of them red-handed in the restaurant during the transfer of the first tranche of USD 50,000. The whistleblower of these corruption crimes was actually the then head of the SPFU Sennychenko. By the way, this was the first attempt to bribe Sennychenko; later, there will be two more, and the ex-head of the SPFU himself will be tried in court.

 

The court qualified the crime of Shcherbak under Article 369, part 4 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The accused concluded an agreement with the prosecutor and fully admitted his guilt in corruption crimes. The court sentenced him to 5 years of probation on the basis of an agreement with the prosecutor.

Later, in June 2020, one of the accomplices in the crime filed an appeal, in which he asked to overturn the verdict of the first instance of the court against Shcherbak. He justified it by the fact that the verdict contained a lie about his actions and he could be identified despite the fact that his last name was not indicated. In addition, he stated that the court allegedly could not exempt Shcherbak from serving his sentence because the crime was corruption-related.

Both the prosecutor and Shcherbak himself disagreed with these arguments; the HACC Appeals Chamber eventually decided that the accomplice did not have the right to appeal this decision at all, so the appeal proceedings were closed.

  • Proceeding No.: 52020000000000252
  • Case No.: 991/3382/20
  • Incriminated: Article 369, part 4
Instance Key parties Instance /Key parties:
CCC
18/08/2020

Panel of judges: Buleiko O.L., Ivanenko I.V., Fomin S.B.

HACC AC
03/07/2020

Panel of judges: Chornenka D.S., Hlotov M.S., Kaluhina I.O.

Prosecutor: Olefir Yu.O.

HACC
28/04/2020

Panel of judges: Halabala M.V., Kryklyvyi V.V., Nohachevskyi V.V.

Lawyer: Chernetskoi O.M.

Prosecutor: Olefir Yu.O.

Infographics

CASE OF SERHII SHCHERBAK

Serhii Shcherbak and his accomplices wanted to give the ex-head of the SPFU USD 5 mln in bribes. Shcherbak received a 5-year suspended sentence on the basis of an agreement with the prosecution.

  • January 2020
    NABU detectives caught Shcherbak and his accomplices red-handed during the transfer of USD 50,000 — the first tranche of the bribe.
  • pic
    May 28, 2020
    The HACC found Shcherbak guilty, approved his plea agreement, and sentenced him to 5 years probation
  • June 18, 2020
    An accomplice to the crime filed an appeal against the HACC decision on Shcherbak
  • pic
    July 30, 2020
    The HACC Appeals Chamber closed the proceedings on the accomplice's appeal and recognized that he had no right to file it
  • August 18, 2020
    The Supreme Court refused to open proceedings on the accomplice's cassation appeal

Decisions from the Register