Case description
On April 20, 2021, the HACC found the ex-head of the Zirka plant in Zaporizhzhia, Anton Shvetsov, guilty of providing a bribe to the then head of the State Reserve Agency in order to remain in his position.
Anton Shvetsov is a former general director of the state organization Zirka Plant. The plant is under the management of the State Reserve Agency and is engaged in the acceptance of petroleum products from railway tanks and tankers, their storage in tanks, and shipment to other tanks.
The former head of the State Reserve Agency of Ukraine, Yaroslav Pohorilyi, organized a scheme in which he took bribes from the heads of enterprises controlled by the State Reserve Agency for keeping them in office and facilitating their further work. Anton Shvetsov agreed to such a proposal and in January 2021, he transferred a bribe of USD 20,000 by mail and a bank transfer.
The investigation reported that Shvetsov independently appealed to the NABU and reported all the circumstances of the events, not knowing about the already open pre-trial investigation against him. However, the HACC refused to exempt Shvetsov from liability, since there was no evidence that the report was made in order to expose the crime. At the beginning of 2021, Pohorilyi was also detained, while receiving another bribe of USD 40,000.
In court, Shvetsov's actions were qualified under Article 369, part 4 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He had concluded an agreement with the prosecutor and received a suspended sentence of 5 years with a probationary period of 2 years.
