On January 27, 2022, the HACC found Yurii Tropanets and Viktor Kuituklu, Odesa lawyers, guilty of fraud and inciting an accused person to give a USD 6,000 bribe to judges.

According to the investigation, in the spring of 2021, two lawyers incited the defendant to transfer a USD 6,000 bribe to the appellate instance judges through them. They convinced him that otherwise he would face a long imprisonment and gave him “guarantees” that after paying the money, this threat would be eliminated. Having received the last tranche of money, the lawyers did not hand it over to the judges, but instead divided it between themselves and spent it.

The actions of Tropanets and Kuituklu were classified under Article 27, part 4; Article 15, part 2; Article 369, part 3; Article 190, part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Both agreed to conclude plea agreements: Tropanets got a 5-year suspended sentence with a 3-year probationary period, and Kuituklu got a 4-year suspended sentence with a 2-year probationary period.