Case description
On May 18, 2022, the HACC found Andrii Vynnychenko, the former director of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration department, guilty of taking a bribe of UAH 1.3 million for connecting a private company's facilities to electricity. The official was sentenced to 7 years in prison with confiscation of all property and additional penalties.
Andrii Vynnychenko is a former director of the Major Construction Department of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration. He used to head the Department of Fuel and Energy Complex of the Kharkiv region, and before his civil service, he had worked for a long time at Kharkivoblenergo.
In June 2020, he was approached by a representative of Continent LLC to connect the company's electrical installations to the power grid. In response, Vynnychenko said that there was allegedly an unofficial payment for such a service in Kharkiv in the amount of UAH 2,200 for each kilowatt (there were 600 in total), he was referring to the calculation of a bribe.
He asked a representative of the company to provide UAH 1.3 million for the subsequent transfer of the money to the acting CEO of Kharkivoblenergo, but after receiving the money, he misappropriated it. The official was immediately detained in his office.
Vynnychenko's actions were classified under Article 15, part 2; Article 190, part 4; Article 27, part 4; Article 15, part 2; Article 369, part 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He was sentenced to 7 years in prison with confiscation of all property, deprivation of the 6th rank of a civil servant and the right to hold public office for 3 years.
The appellate instance upheld the first instance verdict.
