HACC refused to conduct a pre-trial investigation in absentia against Lohvynskyi
On April 1, 2025, in the Golden Mandarin case, HACC investigating judge Vitalii Kryklyvyi refused to grant the prosecutor's motion for a special pre-trial investigation in the case of former MP Heorhii Lohvynskyi.
Earlier, HACC investigating judges had rejected such a motion, but the HACC Appeals Chamber overturned these decisions and ordered the motion to be reconsidered.
During the consideration of the motion, the prosecutor emphasized the validity of the suspicion, which was personally handed to Lohvynskyi and sent to all known postal addresses. In 2023, he was placed on the wanted list.
The defense spoke for over 20 hours during the hearings. The defense lawyers insisted that the circumstances of the case were distorted and that the investigation failed to provide proper evidence. One of the defense attorneys even referred to the prosecutor's statement as a «refined lie».
Lohvynskyi is suspected of organizing a scheme in which the company he controlled, Golden Mandarin, received UAH 54 million from the state budget by filing a claim with the ECHR. In 2015, the ECHR ordered Ukraine to reimburse the company owned by the MP at that time, the amount which he allegedly could not receive for five years due to a decision by the Ukrainian court.
This decision against Ukraine was made under the procedure of an amicable settlement — meaning Ukraine admitted its guilt. According to the prosecution, Lohvynskyi, along with other defendants, deliberately misled the court. Moreover, in 2024, the ECHR declared inadmissible the complaint of Golden Mandarin Oil LLC due to its abuse of the right to appeal to the court.
The ruling can be appealed to the HACC Appeals Chamber within five days.