Case description
The HACC found former employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, Major General Oleksii Bakumenko, guilty of misappropriating a service apartment through fraud and of failure to submit an asset declaration.
Despite the fact that Bakumenko and his wife owned two apartments in Kyiv and were fully provided with housing, he sought to obtain another apartment worth UAH 3.8 million that was state-owned, represented by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense.
To do so, he initiated the procedure for obtaining service housing, knowingly violating the requirements established by law. In particular, he did not submit a report to his unit’s command, failed to justify the lack of housing at his place of service, and, as established, did not actually intend to live in the allocated apartment.
To implement the scheme, Bakumenko and his wife filed for divorce and signed a deed of gift transferring a share of property to his wife, creating a formal appearance of ending the marriage and transferring assets. As was later revealed, the divorce was fictitious.
This removed formal obstacles to converting the service apartment into permanent housing, followed by privatization — in other words, misappropriation.
According to the prosecution, all of these actions were prearranged and coordinated between the couple to conceal their true financial situation and fraudulently obtain state property. Bakumenko continued to live with his wife and used the family's existing housing, to which he retained access.
In addition, Bakumenko was charged with deliberately failing to submit an asset declaration as a public official.
While serving as an attaché at a diplomatic mission, he was subject to anti-corruption legislation and required to file an electronic asset declaration for the relevant year. Despite receiving a reminder from the NACP to submit the declaration within 10 days, he,
according to the investigation, deliberately ignored the requirement — even though he had the technical means to do so, as he submitted a declaration for another reporting year during the same period.
The HACC approved the plea agreement and found Bakumenko guilty under Article 366-3 and Article 410(2) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison and barred from holding certain public positions for 1 year. However, he was released from serving the sentence under a probation period of 1 year.
