Money to expose city council bribe-taker goes missing in Odesa region

In Odesa region, the court refused to consider the claim of the victim, who demanded that the prosecutor's office return the USD 800 lost during the investigation. The funds were provided back in 2016 to expose a city council official for bribery.

This is evidenced by the ruling of the Teplodar City Court of Odesa Oblast.

In Teplodar, the court considered a petition filed by the victim in a bribery case in the city council, who demanded the return of USD 800 lost during the investigation. However, the court left his claim without consideration, noting that this issue is of a civil law nature.

The court considered the appeal of a man who, back in 2016, cooperated with the investigation during the exposure of the head of the property and investment department of the Teplodar City Council. Back then, he provided the investigators with his own funds - $3,000 - to conduct covert investigative actions. This money was used as material evidence in the case against the official accused under Part 3 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - obtaining undue advantage.

Subsequently, after the death of the accused, the criminal proceedings were closed. The court ruled to return part of the material evidence to the victim - USD 2200. However, the rest - $800 - was lost during the investigation. The victim insisted that the prosecutor's office should compensate him for this amount, since the funds were provided specifically to solve the crime and disappeared during the investigators' work.

However, the court found that the lost $800 was not recognized as material evidence in the case, as it was not seized from the defendant during the search. In addition, a similar lawsuit by the victim is already pending in the Odesa Court of Appeal in civil proceedings. As a result, the Teplodar City Court decided to leave the petition without consideration.

At the end of August, the High Anti-Corruption Court approved a plea agreement with Oleksandr Boyarsky, a judge of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi City District Court of Odesa Oblast, in a case involving a corrupt scheme to allow conscripts to travel abroad. He was sentenced to 6 years in prison, but was released from serving the sentence with a probationary period of 3 years.

Анна Бальчінос