How did the judges of the Kyiv Court of Appeal get involved in a corruption scandal?

At the end of November, near the South Railway Station, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau stopped a car carrying a judge and three other court employees. On that day, judges Viktor Glinyany, Vyacheslav Dzyubin and Igor Palenik were on the train to Lviv, and the driver who took them to the station was judge Yuriy Sliva.

NABU detectives began to search the car and the judges. Judge Sliwa had a coffee bag with money on his back behind his trouser belt. The same amount, wrapped in an advertising brochure, was taken from Judge Glinyany’s car, notes “Court Reporter”. Marked banknotes were seized from the homes of judges Palenik and Dzyubin. So, in Palenik’s house they found almost 25 thousand dollars in marked bills and more than 100 thousand dollars, and a significant part of these funds was packaged in coffee bags...

On December 4, the High Council of Justice authorized the detention of all four judges. On December 5, the High Anti-Corruption Court began selecting preventive measures for the suspects. Judge Palenik has already been placed in a pre-trial detention center with an alternative of 4 million UAH.

The first public discussions of the case revealed some unsightly details of the judge's kitchen.

“The coffee is said to be good”

On June 30, 2023, the Pechersky District Court arrested two aircraft in the case against Motor Sich JSC, owned by Vyacheslav Boguslaev, accused of collaborating with the aggressor state. The decision was appealed. PJSC Constanta Airlines, saying that the aircraft belong to it and have nothing to do with Motor Sich.

In the Kiev Court of Appeal, the complaint was heard by a panel consisting of Igor Palenik and two more judges - Yuriy Sliva and Viktor Glinyany, who is the deputy chairman of the court.

In October, Judge Dzyubin, who was not a member of the panel and did not formally hold leadership positions in the court, spoke with citizen Tatyana Polishchuk, who represented the appellants in the aircraft case. Dzyubin allegedly told her that the judges could cancel the arrest for 35 thousand dollars - 10 thousand for the panel members and 5 thousand for him personally.

Subsequently, Dzyubin allegedly decided to increase the amount of remuneration for himself to 10 thousand, and to allocate less to other judges. On November 13, he told Judge Palenik that members of the panel could receive $25,000 in bribes for the decision on the aircraft.

In turn, Palenik told Judge Sliva on November 16 that it was necessary to cancel the arrest from the planes, because some people were approaching this issue. As the prosecutor will emphasize when choosing a preventive measure, it took about 3 minutes for Sliva to explain everything to Palenik, and he understood everything without even seeing the materials.

On November 23, Palenik discussed the case with Glinyan, saying that Dzyubin had approached him about it and talked about 25 thousand dollars for canceling the arrest. And Glinyany replied that he was offered 15 thousand dollars for this, but now this offer makes no sense when they offer more. Palenik explained that lawyers are simply looking for where it is cheaper.

On the same day, Glinyany was looking for materials from the criminal proceedings in Palenik’s office and complained that video cameras were installed in all the corridors of the court and it was impossible to move around calmly. Apparently the judges did not know that NABU cameras were already working in their offices.

On November 24, Glinyany and Palenik discussed the case, namely, that there are grounds for canceling the arrest of one plane, and in order to cancel the second one, the statement of claim must be changed.

On November 27, before the meeting, presiding judge Palenik received confirmation from Dzyubin that nothing had changed as agreed.

On the same day, Dzyubin spoke with Polishchuk, informing her that everything was in force.

- In short, everything has already been agreed upon. If only everything was fine there according to the contract.

– Did Palenik say that?

- Yes. For the planes, I say that this agreement should be shown.

- Yeah.

- Well, there will be a person who participated in the signing. And there you can clearly see that the two planes belong to them.

…

– The same conditions that you and I agreed upon. 30 and mine is 5,” finishing the sentence, Dzyubin showed the woman five fingers, “They didn’t raise anything.”

- Yeah. That is, the appeal will be satisfied in full.

– Yes, but only so that there are documents.

– On November 27, the appeal was upheld. The judges were in the deliberation room for about two hours and announced a short text of the decision.

Dzyubin explained to Polishchuk why the meeting lasted so long: “There is a person there who is very difficult. There used to be another one there, but he has already retired. They replaced one fool, so he is twisting things around, it’s not clear. He’s also afraid of everything there (expletive)... He has such a company there. Especially this stupid Plum came. They have been working there for a long time, they understand each other perfectly.”

The next morning, Judge Dzyubin allegedly received money from citizen Polishchuk.

The video recorded how he divided the money in his office: he kept 10 thousand for himself, and put the rest in a whiskey gift box and took it in a bag to Judge Palenik’s office.

Dzyubin: Excuse me, sir.

Palenik: Yes. What are you doing there?

Dzyubin: This is cognac for you.

Palenik: Cognac? Fine.

Dzyubin: Not cognac, but whiskey here, as you like... (hands over the bag).

Palenik: Okay, thank you (puts the bag under his table).

Dzyubin: Drink to my health.

Palenik: I love this one. Is everything okay there?

Dzyubin: Yes, of course. It’s okay that I got drunk.

Palenik: Well.

Dzyubin: I don’t like making people wait.

After 8 pm that day, Palenik left his office, carrying a bag of money to his home. He kept $8,400 for himself and set aside $8,300 each for the other two judges. At the same time, in order to cover his tracks, Palenik allegedly replaced this money with money that he kept at home. Therefore, in the future, judges Glinyanoy and Sliva did not find any marked bills.

On November 29, Palenik gave money to the judges in turn in his office. This scene was also recorded on video.

Glinyany received an envelope with an Internet advertisement.

Palenik: This is the advertising here. Read it. Internet is good.

Clay: I understand.

Dzyubin gave Sliva a bag of coffee.

Palenik: For coffee... Coffee-coffee. You treated me.

Plum: Yeah. Thank you, thank you.

Palenik: This is soluble. They say it's good.

Plum: Okay, then I left.

None of the judges pleaded guilty and, as the prosecutor argued, did not testify. They are accused of operating as a criminal organization. The systematic nature of the crimes, according to detectives, is evidenced by conversations between judges who understood each other perfectly, used code phrases, fragments of phrases, etc.

After all these events, one of the key defendants in this case, Judge Dzyubin, fell ill in the hospital. At the meeting of the High Council of Justice, his presence was not mandatory and his lawyers handed over documents about his diagnosis. Dzyubin, according to his defenders, allegedly denies that such conversations took place. The defense also hints that law enforcement officers knew where to look for money in the apartment. Therefore, evidence is now being collected about the likelihood of money planting.

Judge Glinyany also said that he did not agree with the suspicion because he did not commit such actions. He boasted that he had a decision to recover from the state 600 thousand in judicial fees that were not paid to him during the pandemic. Considering the times of the war, he did not apply for a writ of execution for the payment of these funds to him. He and his lawyers did not want to explain at the meeting of the High Council of Justice what kind of money was taken from the car in the advertising brochure.

Defenders of the judges say that the applicant in the case is Tatyana Polishchuk, who in 2019 was issued a certificate to practice law by the Vinnytsia Qualification Commission of Lawyers. While communicating with the judges, the woman was allegedly 8 months pregnant. They say that previously Polishchuk allegedly worked in the Kiev Court of Appeal.

Article 275 of the Code of Criminal Procedure prohibits the participation of a lawyer in covert investigative search activities if this leads to the disclosure of confidential information of a professional nature. This is one of the defense arguments about the inadmissibility of the collected evidence.

Lawyers suggest that the purpose of the criminal case was to discredit the panel of judges and cast doubt on the completely legal decision to cancel the seizure of the planes.

At the stage of choosing a preventive measure, the prosecutor opened only part of the materials. Suspects and their defenders did not have the opportunity to view and listen to recordings of covert investigative actions, including from hidden cameras that recorded events in judges' offices. The petition for a preventive measure contained only transcripts of some conversations. This allows the defense to argue that the quotes are taken out of context.

On December 5, during the selection of a preventive measure, the investigating judge invited Palenik to comment on the materials cited by the prosecutor.

“There was no talk about the transfer of undue benefits. The fact that the prosecutor believes that this is about money, well...” Palenik tried to explain.

“This is his subjective impression,” lawyer Elena Shapoval picked up his client’s remark.

“They state that in the opinion of the prosecution this is so. I don’t deny that we communicated and discussed. Moreover, the pre-trial investigation body is obliged to collect not only evidence that exposes me of committing some offenses, but also must collect evidence that exonerates me. But from day to day, NSRD is selective. Excuse me, I don't start work at 10 or 11 o'clock. I start earlier and consider the application. Why do they selectively cut out a certain episode, and don’t let you see the file from the entire protocol? What it is?! I have nothing to be ashamed of. It may also be recorded how I drink a glass,” answered Palenik.

The Chairman of the Kyiv Court of Appeal gave Palenik a positive description: “He has established himself as a highly qualified lawyer, an experienced, hardworking and disciplined judge who has high professional knowledge. In terms of his personal qualities, he is friendly, human-centric and demanding of himself,” lawyer Shapoval read at the hearing.

The job description says that over 11 months, Palenik reviewed about 4,000 cases, including petitions as an investigating judge. “Sometimes I spend the night at work. And, by the way, the NSRD will confirm this,” he commented on his workload.

“It is not yet known who the fool is”

Now the most direct and interesting explanations at the meeting of the High Council of Justice were given by Judge Sliva. He complained about his poor financial condition - an apartment at the end of Troyeshchina and an inexpensive car, and was offended by his colleagues, having read their statements about themselves in the protocols of secret investigative actions.

“I came to this board recently. They are much older than me. Their age is close to the age of my parents. It’s unlikely that my opinion influenced anything. I even talked about this with the head. He said: “Mikhailovich, we must support our position.” Yes, I support, but you understand that colleagues have been working for a long time and, as can be seen from the NSRD, they understand each other with a glance. But they found me a “fool” who is a “difficult person”, and they cannot guarantee the result. I was offended to read this. I treated them with respect. I was meticulous in my and theirs’ affairs... They say I was caught as a fool. I don’t know whether I’m a fool or not, but I wasn’t the one who gave them this envelope with coffee, which now ruined my entire destiny and the destiny of my family, all my relatives. It is not yet known who the fool is...

The prosecutor says that I discussed this case with Palenik. Palenik is the kind of person who constantly walks around and talks about his affairs. So some minor committed a crime and he needs to be released: “Let’s let him out!” Either he has some kind of arrests imposed illegally, or he is in custody... And this is constant. In the toilet, in the corridor. Wherever you meet him, he constantly talks about it. Most often I ended the conversation: “Igor Grigorievich, don’t fool me. Let's listen to the participants in the process, read the production materials and make a decision. How do I know whether we will cancel the arrest, whether it should be cancelled?” Everything I say is the honest truth.

Regarding the transfer of coffee. Igor Grigorievich Palenik constantly travels to Lviv and brings us coffee. To me, my colleagues, my retired colleagues. His apartment is said to be littered with coffee.

I currently have a huge bag of coffee in my office. He passed it on to my friend, a retired judge, because I communicate with him more: “Tell him, Mikhailovich. I'll give you money. Pass it on.” It was a habit to take coffee from him. I have the best coffee machine and we often drank this coffee. And he brought it to me because we drink coffee. The only thing that bothered me then was that he gave me ground coffee.

Why do I need ground coffee if I have beans? I think: he gives, he gives. The coffee shop is closed – I didn’t even pay attention whether it was closed or not. It seemed to me that it was closed. Who will give you unopened coffee?! Will the judge give you unopened coffee?! I thought it was a closed, full bag of coffee. The only thing that surprised me was that it was ground. I think: where should I put this ground? I put it right in my jacket pocket, because I knew that in 10 minutes we had to go to the station. I had to take them (the other three judges - ed.) to the station at their request.

And before that I still had a lot of work to do: admit cases, read decisions, give instructions to assistants. And my rhythm was so frantic that I didn’t even think: it’s coffee, it’s not coffee, maybe there are diamonds in it, I haven’t checked. It looked like an ordinary package, I put it in my pocket... We arrived at the station. They went out. And then at this time we were completely surrounded by NABU workers. Hitting the car, screaming. They were received and forced into custody, and they began to search them. They shout: “Who is this?” - “And this is the driver!”

NABU employees perceived me as a driver. My only question is: “What is the purpose of the search?” - “Like you don’t know?” - "Don't know". We found the money and started counting in the car. Cold, winter. I was kicked out. I stood on the sidelines for two or three hours, freezing. They are all standing in front, I am a little further away, and behind is a crowd of citizens who are simply interested. I didn’t even know that I had money in my pocket...

When they had already searched, the colleagues asked to go to the toilet and a NABU employee took them to the toilet at the station. And I'm standing. If I knew that I had the means, I swear to you, I was a fool not to do that?! Would you like to ask to join them?! And I would have thrown this money into the toilet or somewhere else, I would definitely have gotten rid of it. I didn't know about this money. After a while I put my hand in my pocket and got my finger into this bag. I look, and there is money, dollars. And I have panic, stupor.

Why now come to NABU employees and say: “Oh, I found a package in my pocket, and there are dollars in it?!” I didn't know what he was doing. I'm in a stupor. There was this idea that I was the driver and they wouldn’t search me. They really wouldn't do that. But in the end, the NABU employee called someone, came and said: “We will conduct a superficial search. And they started with Glinyanoy or Palenik. I realized that they would definitely find everything for me. Didn't explain it to anyone.

Nobody will believe this story. That’s how Yuri Mikhailovich was... And now you probably won’t believe it either. But it's true. Lawyers advise me to say that these are my funds or something else. I don't know, maybe this version would be more reasonable. But that wouldn't be true. I started hiding these funds, hid them in my belt and it seemed to me that everything was fine. But you can’t hide anything from NABU, they found it.

Everyone knows NABU. This is the best law enforcement agency in our country. They are provided with everything, they have all the means of surveillance, control... If from 02.11 they controlled me, all of us, and found only one short conversation, where Igor Grigorievich told me about some business, and I called out. I almost always told him: “Igor Grigorievich, don’t fool me. Let’s go to the deliberation room, listen to people and decide the matter.” It’s not my fault and I will continue to live with this position.”