The ruling handed down by the Pechersky District Court (Kyiv) against the former head of the Kyiv City Council's temporary commission for inspecting gas station operations (Vitaliy Danilenko), who had previously accumulated compelling evidence of state crimes including abuse of office, bribery, organized corruption, extortion, and a host of other equally serious charges, seems almost mocking. This was reported. Our money.
A former people's deputy (UDAR) quickly established a well-functioning system for extorting bribes from the owners of Moscow's gas stations, exploiting the businessmen's fear of any government inspections. Each service had its own price, from refusing to conduct an inspection to regulating fuel prices. For example, one business was required to pay 5 kopecks per liter of liquefied gas sold, and if he wanted to raise the price of the latter, he was required to pay an additional 10 kopecks per liter for every 50 kopeck markup.
Unsurprisingly, after Mr. Danilenko was caught taking a bribe, 177,000 hryvnias, almost $13,000, 20 Polish zlotys, and 50 euros were found in his personal car (though officially it belonged to his wife, Yulia Danilenko). A total of approximately 4 million hryvnias were seized during the investigation. According to the scheme, the bribes were transferred through intermediaries in envelopes and also transferred to the accounts of U.K.R.-GEO, a company previously owned by the former deputy, then by his wife, and now headed by Valeriy Bozhko, who has been tasked with liquidating the troubled company as quickly as possible by the end of June.
The list of atrocities reported could go on and on, but during the trial, presided over by Oleh Belotserkovets, notorious for his extensive experience exonerating bribe-takers and embezzlers, a decision was made to release the accused and return the 1,04 million hryvnia bail. This was due to the failure to establish evidence to prove their guilt in court and the exhaustion of all efforts to obtain it. It is unknown whether the SBU and the Prosecutor General's Office, which conducted the investigation, will file an appeal, but it is likely that by that time all traces of the criminal activity will have been eliminated.
SKELET-info
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