On October 1, the High Anti-Corruption Court recovered to the state income a bail paid for Vitalii Kolesnikov, defendant in the case of a bribe to Dmytro Sennychenko, head of the SPFU. Kolesnikov violated the obligations imposed on him by the court, for which the HACC recovered funds. Let us remind you that under the procedure, this money was collected to the state income without the right to return.
And that’s not all, from now on, the defendant will wait for their sentence in custody, and not at large.
What happened?
Taking advantage of the fact that, according to the prosecutor, Kolesnikov’s passport was returned, the accused flew to the Russian Federation for medical treatment. Because of this, Kolesnikov was absent from court sessions on his case, which violated the obligations imposed on him.
Why the defendant would go to the Russian Federation for treatment is unknown because his illness, according to the prosecution, can be treated in Ukraine.
What is the case about?
Let us remind you that in January 2020, the NABU detained Valerii Trots, Vitalii Kolesnikov, and Serhii Shcherbak in a restaurant on suspicion of paying a bribe to the head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine. By the way, this was the first attempt to bribe the head of the SPFU — in the future this will happen again twice.
According to investigators, the detainees offered the head of the SPFU USD 5 mln in exchange for the appointment of a certain person to the post of director of PAT Odessa Port Plant. The appointed head of the state-owned enterprise was allegedly supposed to facilitate cooperation between the plant and a certain circle of private companies associated with the defendants of the case.
The detainees planned to transfer the bribe in installments within a year from the moment of reaching agreements. During the transfer of the first USD 50,000, they were exposed by NABU detectives.
Now, this case is already being considered by the High Anti-Corruption Court.
