A judge from the Economic Court of Kyiv has been suspected of working in favor of Russia.

Law enforcement officials have announced suspicion against a sitting judge of the Economic Court of Kyiv. He made a decision in favor of the Ministry of Defense of Russia.

This was reported by RBK-Ukraine, citing the State Bureau of Investigations (DBR).

"Employees of the State Bureau of Investigations, under the procedural guidance of the Office of the Prosecutor General, have announced suspicion against the judge of the Economic Court of Kyiv and former high-ranking officials of Ukraine," the statement reads.

According to sources from RBK-Ukraine, the judge in question is Anatoliy Ivchenko.

What is the matter

It has been established that back in 2011, Russia involved the then president, prime minister of Ukraine, and the judge of the Economic Court of Kyiv, as well as leaders from various levels of the judicial system, in subversive activities against Ukraine.

"The leadership of the Russian Federation developed a plan under which the defense capability and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation would be financed from the State Budget of Ukraine under the pretext of executing a decision by the Economic Court of Kyiv to pay off a non-existent debt," the agency explained.

To this end, in 2011, the Russian Minister of Defense approached the leadership of Ukraine with a letter seeking assistance in settling a debt of one business entity amounting to $405.5 million for natural gas supplied back in 1996-1997.

"Ukraine had no relation to the debt of a commercial enterprise and could not be held responsible for it. However, the former leadership of the country began emphasizing in the media in 2011 that Ukraine should settle the specified amount with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation," the DBR noted.

Additionally, a letter was prepared for the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) requesting criminal charges against the enterprise's head for allegedly shifting this debt onto the state.

"In an attempt to artificially create grounds for direct financing of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation from the Ukrainian state budget, officials involved the leadership of the judicial system and the judge of the Economic Court of Kyiv to recover $405.5 million in favor of the Russian Federation through an unlawful court decision," the bureau detailed.

How the scheme operated

According to the scheme devised by the individuals involved, in August 2012, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation filed a lawsuit in the Economic Court of Kyiv against the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, seeking the recovery of over 3 billion hryvnias from the state budget.

"The Russians relied on the fact that back in 2004, the then-prime minister, who later became the president of Ukraine, promised to assist them in executing these court decisions. However, due to the lack of contractual relationships between the plaintiff and the defendant, the judge should have denied the opening of the case," the DBR added.

Moreover, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation did not attach any evidence to the lawsuit to substantiate why Ukraine should pay this debt. However, the judge of the Economic Court issued an unlawful ruling and shifted the burden of collecting and providing evidence in the case onto the defendant.

Based on this ruling, the Cabinet provided copies of correspondence between the heads of the governments of Ukraine and Russia from 1996. These were dated before the business entity entered into the transaction that created the debt, so these letters could not serve as evidence of either the existence of the debt or its transfer to Ukraine. Furthermore, the originals of these letters never existed, but the court ignored this fact.

Despite the expiration of the statute of limitations and the absence of state guarantees for the debts of the enterprise, as well as the lack of evidence of the existence of the debt in 2012 from the contracts of 1996-1997, the judge granted the lawsuit of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and ruled to recover over 3.1 billion hryvnias from any account of the State Budget of Ukraine in favor of Russia.

"In execution of the unlawful court decision in favor of Russia, part of the funds was recovered from Ukraine. After the onset of Russian aggression, another judge of the Economic Court annulled this unlawful decision in 2014, but the unjustly collected funds in favor of Russia could not be returned," the Bureau stated.

According to the investigation, these funds were used to finance the so-called "SVO."

As a reminder, in addition to the judge of the Economic Court of Kyiv, on January 18, the DBR and SBU announced suspicion against oligarch Vadim Novinsky.

Also, on the morning of January 18, SBU conducted searches at Max Nazarov's premises. He is a well-known former host who worked on the channels of oligarchs Viktor Medvedchuk and Yevhen Murayev.

Furthermore, the DBR uncovered a scheme for embezzlement of budget funds in the Lviv region. The son of an active member of parliament is suspected of involvement in the scheme.

In addition, a scheme involving the funds of "Land Capital" depositors was uncovered, where participants and the organizer embezzled tens of millions of hryvnias.