Kyiv court demands intensification of investigation into case against NBU's chief lawyer Zyma

The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv issued two rulings obliging investigators of the capital's police to intensify the pre-trial investigation in the case against the director of the legal department of the National Bank of Ukraine Oleksandrzyma. This concerns a criminal proceeding regarding alleged abuse of office, which caused severe consequences, opened at the end of 2023, writes UNN.

The essence of Zymа's case

At the end of 2023, the State Bureau of Investigation opened a criminal proceeding under part 2 of article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – abuse of power or office, which caused severe consequences. The basis was the interference of Zymа, who is also the chairman of the administrative council of the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals, in court proceedings by sending a letter on behalf of the National Bank of Ukraine to the Fund with a "recommendation" to withdraw lawsuits filed against the National Bank. It is worth noting that the chief lawyer of the regulator asked to withdraw the lawsuits of the bank "Concord", filed before the start of its liquidation process. The plaintiff in court planned to challenge fines totaling almost UAH 63.5 million, imposed by the regulator.

The Fund executed the recommendation-instruction, which, according to co-owner of the bank Olena Sosiedka, deprived the bank's shareholders of their constitutional right to a fair trial.

Later, the investigation of the criminal proceeding was transferred to the Pechersk Police Department in Kyiv, whose investigators recognized the co-owners of "Concord" Olena and Yuliia Sosiedka as victims. According to lawyers, this confirmed that Oleksandr Zymа's actions caused real significant harm to the bank's shareholders.

In response to a request from UNN, the police reported that during the investigation, they plan to question the chief lawyer of the National Bank, and then consider applying to the court for his removal from office.

Case without progress

Since then, the investigation of Zymа's case has obviously been put on hold. After all, how else to explain the fact that the official has not yet been served with a notice of suspicion and has not been questioned?

The pace of the criminal proceeding against the NBU official does not satisfy even the Pechersk District Prosecutor's Office of Kyiv. "The procedural supervisor sent instructions to the Pechersk Department of the National Police Department in Kyiv to intensify the pre-trial investigation," the department reported in response to a UNN inquiry.

However, even after the procedural supervisor's instructions to intensify the investigation into Oleksandr Zymа's case, there have been no significant developments in this proceeding.

Therefore, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv had to get involved in the case, issuing two rulings in May this year and obliging police investigators to intensify the criminal proceeding against Zymа.

Lawyers' opinion

According to a number of experts, the situation with Zymа's case is a typical example of delaying the investigation of an official's service crime. Former judge Oleksandr Sytnykov noted that such delays are a characteristic feature of investigations into service crimes.

"Service crimes, frankly speaking, are very often delayed," Sytnykov noted in a commentary to UNN.

Sytnykov's colleague "in the profession" – the president of the All-Ukrainian Association of Judges in Retirement Denys Neviadomskyi – shares a similar opinion. In his opinion, in this case, we can talk not just about delays, but about a complete lack of investigation.

"Undoubtedly, the case is not being investigated, and the absence of a suspicion allows the investigator to keep this case without progress indefinitely, since the procedural deadlines during the war in cases where suspicion has not been served are suspended until the end of martial law," he noted in a commentary to UNN.

In turn, the founder of the law firm "Kasyanenko and Partners" Dmytro Kasyanenko recalled that inaction in the investigation of a criminal proceeding contradicts the norms of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. The lawyer also believes that investigators may intentionally delay the investigation of the NBU chief lawyer's case.

"There are reasonable suspicions of intentional delay in the investigation. In accordance with the current version of Art. 219 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, the period of pre-trial investigation is calculated not from the moment of entering information into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations, but from the day the person is notified of suspicion. However, this does not relieve the investigator from the obligation to take the necessary measures to establish the circumstances of the crime. Inaction in such a proceeding directly contradicts Art. 28 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, which guarantees the right to a reasonable period of criminal proceedings," the lawyer noted.

Therefore, the situation surrounding Zymа's case is another test of the law enforcement system's ability to respond to service crimes by high-ranking officials.