The HACC found Viktor Serhiichuk, head of the Environmental Protection and Control NGO, guilty of inciting convicted offender Mykola Iliashenko to give a bribe in exchange for closing the criminal proceedings in which former Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mykola Zlochevskyi was a suspect.
The NABU investigated an episode concerning the embezzlement of the stabilization loan issued to Real Bank, owned by oligarch Serhii Kurchenko, and the subsequent laundering of the money. Zlochevskyi was among the many people implicated in that case.
In 2020, Mykola Zlochevskyi tried to “hush up the case” by drawing into his criminal plan Mykola Iliashenko, first deputy head of the State Tax Service of Kyiv; Andrii Kicha, one of Burisma's executives; and Olena Mazurova, former head of an SFS department. With their assistance, Zlochevskyi sought to pass a $5 million bribe to Artem Sytnyk and Nazar Kholodnytskyi, then the heads of the NABU and the SAPO.
According to the investigation, Viktor Dorofeiev, director of the Solomianska Varta NGO, and Viktor Serhiichuk, head of the Environmental Protection and Control NGO, approached Mykola Iliashenko — one of the suspects, and subsequently a defendant, in the case concerning the attempted bribery of the SAPO and NABU leadership to close the criminal proceedings against Mykola Zlochevskyi.
Passing themselves off as people with influential connections at the NABU, the SAPO, and the HACC, they tried to persuade Iliashenko to hand over more than $1.8 million in exchange for help in concluding an agreement with the prosecutor and avoiding criminal liability. The perpetrators were detained while receiving part of the agreed sum — $50,000.
Serhiichuk's actions were classified under Article 369(4) and Article 190(4) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Viktor Serhiichuk entered a plea agreement with a SAPO prosecutor. The materials concerning him were severed into separate proceedings. The verdict is currently classified. The trial of the other defendants in this case is ongoing.
