Today, the HACC held the first preparatory hearing in the case of a criminal organization at the State Property Fund of Ukraine, involving the misappropriation of over UAH 700 million from state-owned enterprises and the legalization of property worth over UAH 10 billion. The case is currently being heard by newly appointed HACC judge Vitalii Koriahin, sitting alone.

The defendant Mykola Synytsia appeared in court, while Yurii Lypka, Volodymyr Kolot, and Denys Kudin joined via video link. Sennychenko, Hmyrin, Prysiazhniuk, Somov, Parsentiev, and Horbunenko, however, did not show up. Some defense lawyers also skipped the hearing.

The judge opened the preparatory hearing by addressing motions for recusal and self-recusal. The defense of Pavlo Prysiazhniuk moved to recuse the prosecutor. Among its grounds, the defense cited the prosecutor's conduct in seeking mutual legal assistance from other countries. She allegedly failed to inform the court that close relatives of the defendant had been served notices of suspicion. This concerns, in particular, the defendant Andrii Hmyrin: in February 2026, his parents, his sister, and one other person were notified of suspicion of legalizing UAH 300 million.

Separately, the defense pointed to the prosecutor's alleged bias and claimed that SAPO had requalified the charges in the case as abuse of office under Article 364 of the Criminal Code, while in public, according to the defense, the case is still framed as a criminal organization case.

The prosecutor opposed the recusal. She argued that the defense was, in effect, simply disagreeing with the investigation's procedural actions and decisions. In the end, the court denied the motion to recuse the prosecutor.

The court then moved on to the procedure and schedule for the preparatory proceedings, but the defense asked for the hearing to be postponed. The case concerns an especially grave crime, and a significant portion of the defendants and their lawyers were absent. Moreover, the defense said, there was no proof that some of the defendants had been properly notified of the summons.

As a result, the preparatory hearing was postponed until October 2.

To recap, the case concerns events of 2019–2021, when, according to the investigation, former SPFU head Dmytro Sennychenko set up a criminal organization that embezzled funds from the state-owned enterprises Odesa Portside Plant and United Mining and Chemical Company by breaching tender procedures in product procurement. Sennychenko brought acquaintances, UMCC and OPP officials, and private entrepreneurs into the scheme. Many of the figures are currently abroad, and the pre-trial investigation was repeatedly suspended while they were on the wanted list.