SAPO is charging Dina Pimakhova, former First Deputy Head of the State Migration Service, with soliciting and accepting a bribe in exchange for issuing a foreigner a residence permit and Ukrainian citizenship.

According to the prosecution, in June 2017 Dina Pimakhova met with an acquaintance and asked him for a USD 1,800 bribe in exchange for processing documents for a Vietnamese citizen's legal stay in Ukraine. She accepted the funds and then asked for another USD 30,000 to fast-track Ukrainian citizenship for an Iranian citizen on the pretext of territorial origin.

To achieve this criminal aim, the official offered to use what she called “the only legal scheme” — to “manufacture” relatives for the foreigner in Ukraine by falsifying DNA tests, which would create artificial grounds for court rulings establishing family ties between foreigners and Ukrainian nationals. This would allow the foreign national to acquire the status of a citizen of Ukraine and obtain both a domestic Ukrainian passport and a passport for foreign travel.

Information about the undercover work of Pimakhova's acquaintance with the NABU was subsequently leaked, and the unlawful processing of the foreigners' documents was never completed. In November 2017, media reported that the SSU, together with the Prosecutor General's Office, had allegedly disrupted a sting operation run by NABU agents at the migration service. The SMS, for its part, stated that a NABU agent had attempted to entrap Pimakhova into accepting a bribe.

On September 26, 2017, Pimakhova filed a complaint with the SSU Main Directorate for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime, alleging entrapment by NABU agents and detectives. The case concerning possible entrapment by NABU agents was closed three times for lack of corpus delicti. On two of those occasions, the decision was made by prosecutor Oleksandr Omelchenko, who was simultaneously handling the case against Dina Pimakhova. For that reason, the court recused him from the proceedings, finding that he had already formed a position on both cases. On April 8, 2021, a SAPO prosecutor closed the criminal proceedings opened on Pimakhova's complaint for good.

The lawfulness and validity of the decision to close the proceedings against the detectives were confirmed by the HACC Appeals Chamber, which denied an appeal filed by Pimakhova's defense.

The defense continues to maintain that the detectives went beyond the limits of a passive investigation, and that the further communication with the agent and the notice of suspicion served on her were made possible only by their active conduct and entrapment.

Dina Pimakhova's actions were classified under Article 368(4) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The trial is ongoing.

For more details, see the report by journalists at Bihus.info.