Case description
On August 1, 2023, the HACC convicted Mykola Zlochevskyi, a former Yanukovych-era environmental minister who tried to close a criminal investigation against him for USD 5 million.
Prior to the bribe transfer investigation, the NABU was investigating an episode involving the embezzlement and stabilization loan of Real Bank by oligarch Serhii Kurchenko and subsequent money laundering. Zlochevskyi was one of many defendants in this case.
In 2020, Mykola Zlochevskyi tried to “hush up the case” by involving Mykola Ilyashenko, the first deputy head of the State Tax Service of Kyiv; Andrii Kicha, one of Burisma's executives; and Olena Mazurova, former head of the SFS department, in his criminal plan.
With their assistance, Zlochevskyi wanted to transfer a USD 5 million bribe to the then heads of the NABU and the SAPO, Sytnyk and Kholodnytskyi. Ilyashenko wanted to keep another USD 1 million for himself. To implement the plan, the three accomplices turned to Yevhen Shevchenko, whom Ilyashenko had known since 2016.
He was the one who had to negotiate with the law enforcement officers to close the case. Instead, Shevchenko, a well-known NABU agent, appealed to the National Bureau about the crime and began to cooperate with detectives to expose it.
In mid-June 2020, Ilyashenko, Kicha, and Mazurova were detained while handing over the USD 5 million bribe to whistleblower Yevhen Shevchenko. Zlochevskyi could not be detained because he was abroad, so he was put on the international wanted list.
Zlochevskyi's actions were initially classified under Article 27, part 3, Article 369, part 4 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Subsequently, he was charged with other articles, namely Article 27, part 3, Article 369-2, part 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provide for a much more lenient sentence. Zlochevskyi was able to avoid serving a real prison term because he concluded a favorable plea agreement.
The HACC fined him UAH 68,000. In addition, under the terms of the agreement, he donated UAH 660 million to the Armed Forces.
By the way, Mykola Zlochevskyi owns the gas production company Burisma, which is associated with a major scandal that led to the first impeachment of the then-US President Donald Trump. The latter, according to media reports, asked the President of Ukraine to reopen the investigation into Joe Biden's son Hunter, who worked for Burisma.
