The Antonov corruption case was sent to court

The former director of legal affairs of the State Enterprise "Antonov" and the ex-head of the law firm, whose actions caused the state damage of more than 18 million UAH, will appear in court. NABU and SAPO also accuse them of preparing deliberately false official documents.

The investigation found that in July 2018, the law firm, within the framework of an agreement for the provision of legal services, was supposed to help the Antonov State Enterprise to collect a debt in the amount of more than UAH 347 million from the bankrupt Brokbusinessbank JSC under a deposit agreement. Part of this debt was secured by a mortgage (a non-residential building in Kyiv, the estimated value of which was more than UAH 120 million).

In December 2018, the building was transferred to the Antonov State Enterprise as a partial debt collection. According to the concluded agreement and additional agreement to it, the remuneration of lawyers for the legal services provided should be 5% of the value of the transferred but unrealized property. At the same time, the director of legal affairs of the Antonov State Enterprise, in collusion with the head of the law firm, agreed on an inflated payment for services - almost 10% of the assessed value of the building. In this regard, the state-owned enterprise transferred UAH 7 million more to lawyers.

In May 2021, in pursuance of the laws of Ukraine and the orders of the Government, the non-residential building was transferred to the management of another government body. At the time of transfer, the building was valued at more than UAH 212 million. The debt obligations of the Antonov State Enterprise to the state were written off for this amount. After this, an official of the Antonov State Enterprise, in collusion with the director of the law firm, agreed to pay him an additional 11 million UAH as a result of the transfer of the building.

At the same time, the law firm had nothing to do with the transfer of the building and the write-off of the Antonov State Enterprise’s debt obligations to the state, and this issue was not covered at all by the contract for the provision of legal services. Thus, the total amount of damage to the state-owned enterprise amounted to UAH 18 million.

During the pre-trial investigation, the entire amount of funds transferred by the Antonov State Enterprise to the law firm was seized. The investigation of these facts by NABU and SAPO was launched in the spring of 2022 after a statement from the Antonov State Enterprise. On March 10, 2023, NABU and SAPO reported suspicion to a former official of the State Enterprise "Antonov" (Part 5 of Article 191, Part 1 of Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and the director of a lawyer association (Part 5 of Article 27, Part 5 of Art. 191, part 1 of article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). In July 2023, the investigation was completed.