The panel of judges of the High Anti-Corruption Court announced the verdict against the deputy chairman of the Rivne Regional Council. The report does not name the defendant, but the circumstances of the case indicate that it is Serhiy Svystaliuk. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison. The court also ruled to partially confiscate property – 500 thousand UAH, which are stored in the deposit account of the High Anti-Corruption Court. This was reported on May 7 on the page of the High Anti-Corruption Court on Facebook.
In 2024, the official was caught receiving about half a million hryvnias of illegal benefits for resolving land and property issues. According to the investigation, in 2021, a private entrepreneur bought a children’s sanatorium that was not working. In the future, he planned to acquire the property of the sanatorium, as well as the land on which it is located. To “resolve” this issue, the entrepreneur turned to the deputy chairman of the regional council.
The official promised, in exchange for illegal gain, to assist in the write-off of property and ensure that the deputies of the Rivne Regional Council adopt a decision to sell the 5.4-hectare land plot on which the sanatorium is located. During the pre-trial investigation, it was established that in 2022–2023, the official, together with the director of one of the municipal enterprises, received almost half a million hryvnias from the entrepreneur for his “services”.
The court found him guilty of crimes under Part 2 of Article 369-2 and Part 4 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In addition to 9 years of imprisonment, he was deprived of the right to hold positions related to the performance of the functions of a local government representative on a permanent, temporary or special authority basis for three years.
Earlier, the deputy head of the Environmental Safety Department of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia was detained for taking a bribe of $100,000 in cash. For this money, according to the investigation, he promised to resolve the issue of permission for the enterprise to dismantle the railway tracks. The Department of Investigative Investigations reported that as a guarantee of the obligations undertaken, the official even wrote a receipt for receiving the funds.
The State Bureau of Investigation noted that the official was contacted by a representative of a company that extracts minerals. He asked to draw up documents for the dismantling of the railway track, which remained on the balance sheet of Ukrzaliznytsia and passed through the deposit.
