HACC Upholds SAPO Lawsuit for UAH 2.8 mln against Odesa Customs Officer Viktor Tkachenko

On January 25, the panel of judges of the HACC, consisting of Kateryna Shyroka, Olha Salandiak, and Oksana Oliinyk, upheld the lawsuit of the SAPO against Viktor Tkachenko, the ex-employee of the Odesa Customs. The court found assets worth UAH 2.8 mln to be unjustified and decided to recover this amount into the state budget.  

In December 2023, the SAPO filed a lawsuit, in which it asked to recognize the assets as unjustified and recover their value into the state income. It concerned an apartment with a total area of 121.5 square meters worth UAH 2.44 mln and two parking spaces with an area of 23.3 and 15.2 square meters with a total value of UAH 384,000 in the center of Odesa.  

According to the SAPO, Viktor Tkachenko or his family could not acquire the property at the expense of legitimate income. After all, Viktor Tkachenko has moderate salary of a customs officer, and his mother, who nominally purchased an apartment, is a pensioner.  

The prosecutor claimed that Tkachenko’s mother was only a nominal owner, who, in fact, almost did not live in the apartment, nor did she have cars to use two parking spaces, so it was obvious that the actual owner of the property from 2020 to 2021 was the customs officer himself. 

In addition, the plaintiff argued that the negotiations on the purchase of these real estate objects were conducted by Tkachenko because he chose them for himself. 

No wonder Tkachenko denied such facts. His position boiled down to the fact that his mother bought an apartment in the center of Odesa with her own savings, as well as with a loan from a family friend — Melnychuk. 

During the trial, the court interrogated a number of witnesses, including the family friend, who had lent almost UAH 2 mln for the purchase of the apartment. Her testimony was very interesting. For example, it turned out that the woman had borrowed such a large amount of money without interest. She was sure that the defendant Tkachenko would definitely repay the debt, despite his modest salary as a customs officer, because she knew him to be a decent person.  

When asked by the court how exactly the witness gave the money because UAH 2 mln in cash weighs about 20 kilograms, she replied that she did it in a usual plastic bag. The witness could not remember many details about this loan; according to her, she lends such amounts to her acquaintances from time to time.  

Melnychuk also said that it was she who advised the Tkachenko family to get a loan and buy an apartment for the mother of the accused, 85-year-old pensioner Liubov Tkachenko. Allegedly, she gave this recommendation because Tkachenko was married and had a child in the marriage, and in case of divorce, the apartment could become the property of his wife.  

Unfortunately, the court could not interrogate Liubov Tkachenko due to her state of health, but she sent written explanations to the court. She noted that she had bought an apartment with parking spaces, although she did not have a car, to sell it in the future, and apartments without parking spaces are sold much worse. However, she quickly decided to give the apartment to her son Victor. She explained the origin of the funds by stating that she had been an entrepreneur and had been engaged in trading in the market for many years.  

However, the court was not convinced by the defendant’s arguments and upheld the lawsuit. The decision was adopted with a separate opinion, the content of which we will find out later.  

Let us remind you that this is the tenth decision in civil forfeiture cases.