Case description
On July 16, 2021, the HACC found former MP Oleksandr Presman guilty of receiving almost UAH 1 million in compensation for hotel accommodation despite having housing in Kyiv.
Oleksandr Presman was a member of the Verkhovna Rada of the VIII convocation. From 2014 to 2019, he received compensation for accommodation at the National Hotel, a hotel for MPs, which amounted to almost UAH 983,000. At the same time, Presman had a home in the capital and knew that the Verkhovna Rada Office, to which he had filed a compensation claim, could not check whether MPs had such a home based on the claim alone.
Presman's actions were classified under Article 364, part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The former MP concluded a plea agreement, so the court imposed a 3-year suspended sentence on him with a 3-year probationary period, a fine of UAH 17,000, and deprived him of the right to hold public office for a year. If not for the deal, Presman would have faced up to 6 years in prison.
The courts refused to open appeal and cassation proceedings.
