Court closes two e-declaration fraud cases after scandalous ruling

The High
Anti-Corruption Court announced on its website on Nov. 12 it has closed two
criminal cases alleging fraud in electronic declarations on assets and income.
The rulings were based on the scandalous
Oct. 27 ruling
by the Constitutional Court overturning the law on punishing such fraud, which
undermined the activity of most of Ukraine’s anti-corruption infrastructure,
which had been sponsored by Western institutions. The cases involved the e-declarations
of Pavlo Bukin, the former general director of Ukroboronprom, and Hennadiy
Moliboha, the head of the Druzhkivskiy City Court in the Donetsk region. The
court closed the first e-declaration fraud case on Nov. 3, which involved
Kostiantyn Bryl, the former head of the Zaporizhia regional administration. The
court had been reviewing a total of 17 such cases at the time of the scandalous
ruling, which drew harsh rebukes from leading Western authorities.

Ukraine’s
Constitutional Court has not been able to convene for at least a week owing to
several judges being infected with the COVID-19 disease caused by the
coronavirus, its spokeswoman told the pravda.com.ua news site on Nov. 12.
Recall, at least three judges – who were opposed to the Oct. 27 scandalous
ruling overturning the anti-corruption infrastructure – announced on Nov. 5 they will
take a leave of absence from the court owing to media leaks, denying it its needed
quorum to hold hearings.

Zenon Zawada: The
closure of these criminal cases reflects the damage done by the scandalous Oct.
27 ruling, which is why it was being sought by powerful people. This lends
evidence to the speculation that the ruling was the result of backroom deals,
as possibly bribes. Moreover, several of the court’s judges stood to
gain personally from it. It’s worth noting
that no legislation has yet to be approved to rebuild the anti-corruption infrastructure
that had been ruined by the ruling.