VAKS closed one of the episodes of the NABU case against Odessa ex-prosecutor Zhuchenko
3 September 2024 13:50
The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine has said that it has sent to court an indictment against former Odessa Region prosecutor Oleh Zhuchenko “on charges of abuse of office, receiving undue benefits of a flat in Odessa from a developer and using a knowingly forged document”. The Supreme anti-corruption court, accordingly, should begin consideration of the case on the merits. At the same time, during the period of investigation in the proceedings there have been a number of cardinal changes that cast doubt on the likelihood of a guilty verdict in it, writes “Glavcom” with reference to data from the Register of court decisions and official reports of the SAP, reports Komersant ukrainskyi 
Firstly, according to the decision of the SAP, the episode with Zhuchenko’s indictment was separated from the large so-called “Odessa” proceedings (against Odessa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov and Odessa businessman Vladimir Galanternik – #42017000000001097) into a separate case.
Although from the beginning of the prosecution, the investigation called all three of them members of the same criminal group.
“The exclusion of Oleg Zhuchenko from the OCG may mean, at least, the absence of grounds to link him with other defendants,” the publication points out.
Secondly, the director of the construction company FPG Budova LLC was also taken into separate proceedings, as evidenced by the definition of the VAKS of 6 December last year. He was also initially one of the 16 persons in the case of “Trukhanov Galanternik”. Subsequently, it was closed after it was separated into a separate proceeding (#52023000000000319).
“To release Person_6 (director of FPG Budova LLC, – ed.) from criminal liability on the basis of Article 49 of the Criminal Code due to the expiration of the statute of limitations in terms of suspicion of committing a criminal offence under Article 358(4) of the Criminal Code. To close the criminal proceeding №52023000000000319 from 19.07.2023 in the part of suspicion of Person_6 in committing a criminal offence under Part 4 of Article 358 of the Criminal Code due to the release from criminal liability,” the court decision reads.
It follows from the text of this ruling that all the suspicion previously put forward to the director of the construction company “FPG Budova” was extracted around more than 40 ready-made flats for employees of the Odessa Regional Prosecutor’s Office, which were provided by the company in return for the right to develop the land plot. That is, this episode closed by the VAKS concerned Zhuchenko. And no other defendants in the proceedings №52023000000000319 are mentioned in the text of the judgement at all.
As Komersant ukrainskyi wrote, ex-prosecutor of Odessa region Zhuchenko was offered to pay off the NABU prosecution. He appealed to the SBU. As a result, the woman who “sold” the corresponding favour was detained. It is still not known exactly who this woman was and where she got all the details from Zhuchenko’s criminal proceedings.
