The High Anti-Corruption Court has delivered a guilty verdict against the Deputy Chairman of the Rivne Regional Council, Serhiy Svystaliuk. He is accused of receiving a bribe of nearly half a million hryvnias and abuse of influence to "assist" a private entrepreneur with property matters. This was reported by UNN with reference to the HACC press service.
Details
The crimes for which Svystaliuk is charged are provided for under Part 4 of Art. 368 and Part 2 of Art. 369-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He was sentenced to 9 years of imprisonment, a 3-year ban on holding positions in local government, and the confiscation of 500,000 hryvnias.
Until the sentence enters into legal force, Svystaliuk's preventive measure remains in the form of bail with the following procedural obligations imposed:
- to appear before the court upon every request;
- to notify the court of any change in his place of residence and place of
work;
- to surrender his passport(s) for traveling abroad and other
documents granting the right to leave and enter Ukraine to the relevant authorities of the State
Migration Service for safekeeping;
- not to leave the territory of Ukraine without the court's permission.
Context
At the end of 2021, private entrepreneur Volodymyr Rudiuk purchased the defunct "Novostav" children's tuberculosis sanatorium, which was in communal ownership, through an electronic auction.
Following this, Serhiy Svystaliuk, while serving as Deputy Chairman of the Rivne Regional Council, promised the businessman to facilitate the transfer of ownership of the sanatorium's property and the land beneath it—a plot of 5.4 hectares.
Another person involved in the case is the director of the sanatorium, Fedir Avruka. He entered into a plea agreement regarding the receipt of a 150,000 hryvnia bribe and influencing regional council deputies.
In May 2023, Svystaliuk was officially served with a notice of suspicion.
Additional Information
According to open sources, Serhiy Svystaliuk was elected as a deputy of the Rivne Regional Council in 2020 from Oleh Liashko's Radical Party. He also served as an assistant-consultant to the People's Deputy of the VIII convocation, Andriy Lozovyi, from the same Radical Party of Oleh Liashko.
As a reminder
The High Anti-Corruption Court changed the preventive measure for People's Deputy Oleksandr Yurchenko in a bribery case. He is prohibited from leaving the Kyiv region until June 30 of the current year.