Case description
The HACC has found lawyer Tetiana Berezhna guilty of offering and providing a bribe to a judge of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi City District Court in Odesa Region.
According to the investigation, Berezhna intended to offer a bribe to Judge Oleksandr Boiarskyi of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi City District Court in exchange for a favorable decision in a case filed by another person.
While near the court building, Berezhna approached the judge and whispered her proposal, noting that she would pass the details through an intermediary. However, the judge encouraged her to explain everything directly. During the conversation, Berezhna requested a favorable ruling in a case seeking to establish the fact of constant care for a dependent person—a fact that, under Article 23 of the Law of Ukraine on Mobilization Preparation and Mobilization, serves as a ground for deferral from military service. When the judge inquired whether the case file included medical board certificates, Berezhna assured him that all necessary documents were present, including those certificates.
Judge Boiarskyi responded that he saw no obstacles to issuing a favorable decision and advised her to speak with his assistant. In turn, Berezhna indirectly suggested that she intended to transfer an unlawful benefit through a trusted person, as she was not satisfied with the conditions for handing over the money through the court secretary. That same day, she involved an accomplice in the case. For the sake of secrecy, she instructed the intermediary to hand over the money silently. He agreed and jokingly remarked that the judge would need to “sew up his pockets.” Later, they approached a car and placed the bribe — $400 — in the glove compartment among some photographs, hinting that the judge should “take a look.”
Berezhna pleaded guilty and testified within the framework of the broader criminal proceedings concerning an organized group operating within the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi City District Court. The NABU and the SAPO uncovered a corruption scheme in which court rulings, for example, decisions granting child custody to fathers to facilitate travel abroad, were issued in exchange for money. “Clients” were recruited via social media, and the price per decision ranged from $1,500 to $3,500.
The HACC found Berezhna guilty under Article 369(3) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The court sentenced her to four years of imprisonment. However, under the terms of a plea agreement, she was released from serving the actual sentence, subject to a one-year probation period. The $400 bribe was confiscated.
