Case description
The NABU and the SAPO accuse former Kyiv City Council member Vladyslav Trubitsyn and five other people of receiving UAH 1.39 million in bribes for placing retail outlets in Kyiv.
In February 2022, NABU detectives exposed Kyiv City Council member Vladyslav Trubitsyn. In collusion with his close associates and officials of municipal enterprises, the former council member allegedly organized a scheme to extort money for issuing permits to install kiosks (retail outlets) in various districts of Kyiv.
Trubitsyn and the other defendants were caught red-handed while receiving UAH 1.26 million. According to the NABU, this was the second tranche of the bribe that was demanded from the entrepreneur for organizing street trading in seven locations in Kyiv. The media reported that Trubitsyn fled the scene of the alleged crime by car.
The actions of Trubitsyn were qualified under Article 368, part 4 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Five more people: former director of Miskyi Mahazyn Municipal Enterprise Aman Molamov; his deputy Oleksii Nepriakhin; deputy director of Kyivska Spadshchyna Municipal Enterprise Dmytro Kovalchuk; and two of Trubitsyn’s assistants, Illia Lif and Artem Bilynskyi; were charged under the same article as accomplices.
Trubitsyn was released from the pre-trial detention facility on bail, and three days before the court hearing, on May 13, 2023, he had fled to Poland driving his Mercedes S600. The departure was authorized on the basis of a letter from Kyrylo Budanov, chheadief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence. According to the explanation, it was a volunteer activity to provide the Special Operations Forces with “special equipment.”
Now Trubitsyn has been placed on the wanted list and the HACC is trying him in absentia. In May 2023, Olena Shuliak, head of the Servant of the People party, announced the suspension of Trubitsyn’s member mandate of the Kyiv City Council. He was also expelled from the faction, and his membership in the party was terminated at the beginning of Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion.
