Court orders SBI to open proceedings against ARMA under the leadership of Yaroslava Maksymenko

On March 23, 2026, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv, in case 757/15000/26-k, granted a complaint against the inaction of the territorial department of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and obliged authorized officials of the agency to enter information about a criminal offense committed by the National Agency of Ukraine for Identification, Tracing and Management of Assets Derived from Corruption and Other Crimes (ARMA) into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations, UNN reports with reference to Sudovo-Yurydychna Hazeta.

The SBI, contrary to the requirements of the law, was unwilling to do so.

A statement about the criminal offense was sent to the email address of the SBI Territorial Department in Kyiv back in March 2026.

The reason for contacting the SBI was ARMA's failure to execute court decisions and return seized property to its owner. Court decisions are ignored by ARMA and are not executed, even despite a change in leadership.

According to Article 214 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, law enforcement officers are obliged to enter information into the register within 24 hours from the moment of receiving the application.

However, the applicant did not receive information that the details from her application had been entered into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations.

This forced the defense to challenge the Bureau's inaction in court.

The court established that as of the time of considering the complaint, the information from the application (notification) had not been entered into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations, and the investigation itself had not even begun.

Since the SBI did not provide any evidence of fulfilling its duty, and the SBI representative did not even appear at the court hearing, the court sided with the applicant.

Currently, Yaroslava Maksymenko is temporarily acting as the Head of ARMA.

For non-execution of a court decision committed by an official holding a responsible or particularly responsible position, or if it caused significant harm to the rights of citizens, the Criminal Code provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of three to eight years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a term of up to three years.