HACC left unchanged the acquittal of September 29, 2021, in the case of the State Food Grain Corporation, the national grain market operator of Ukraine. Nazar Kulchytskyy and Partners represented the interests of Valery Tomilenko, former acting chairman of the SFGCU, within the scope of the case.
In 2021, the court decided that the prosecutors did not prove the guilt of the former acting chairman Valery Tomilenko and directors of elevators Yury Selyuchenko and Hryhoriy Shkvir. By the decision of the court, the arrest was lifted from the apartments and cars of the accused and the bail in the amount of UAH 2.5 million was returned. In addition, HACC recognized a significant part of the evidence as unreliable and inadmissible.
“We were dealing with a fabricated accusation. In fact, typical economic relations took place, as confirmed by the courts. The evidence of the prosecution was not convincing enough both in 2021 and at the appeal stage. Attempts to find corruption where it does not have a place is a challenge that still needs to be dealt with to shift the attention of anti-corruption bodies to truly significant and promising cases. Therefore, spending taxpayers’ money is efficient,” comments Nazar Kulchytskyy, founder of Nazar Kulchytskyy and Partners law firm.
Earlier, in 2015 NABU and SAP incriminated Valery Tomilenko of the signing of two contracts for the supply of corn with PJSC “Rokytnyanskii kombinat hliboproduktiv” and PJSC “Vasylkivhlibproductiv” for UAH 88.5 million, as a result of which the national operator of the grain market allegedly suffered losses. The actions were qualified under Part 5 of Art. 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
The protection of Valery Tomilenko lasted for 6 years from 2015 to 2021, although the previous non-fulfillment of the contract due to the drought in 2015 was the subject of consideration by commercial courts. The court ordered to return the funds to the SFGCU, and both PJSC “Rokytnyanskii kombinat hliboproduktiv” and PJSC “Vasylkivkhlibprodukt” fulfilled the requirement.