Supreme Anti-Corruption Court closed case of Vadym Alperin
The Supreme Anti-Corruption Court closed the case of Vadym Alperin, whom Zelenskyy called the "godfather of smuggling" at the beginning of his term, and promised a valuable gift for finding him.
Vitaliy Shabunin, chairman of the board of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, wrote about this on Facebook, Censor.NET reports.
He noted that this is the second case after Rotterdam+ to be closed this week due to Lozovyi's "amendments".
Shabunin recalled that at the beginning of his presidency, Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Alperin the "godfather" of smuggling and promised a valuable gift for finding him.
"And now that he has been found and is being punished, due to the inaction of the deputies, the court simply forgives him. It also returns the bail and cancels all property seizures," Shabunin writes.
Shabunin stressed that Bill No. 10100 has been registered in the Rada, which could resolve this issue once and for all.
"But some 'servants' like Buzhansky are clearly determined to block it. Let me remind you that the previous Rada adopted the Lozovyi amendments in 2017 to save its top corrupt officials. In 4 years, the current government has still not corrected that shame in order to protect its own top corrupt officials," Shabunin writes.
As reported, on 27 November 2019, NABU officers detained Odesa-based smuggler Alperin after he came to the prosecutor's office himself. He and his accomplices were accused of creating a criminal organisation that illegally smuggled goods into Ukraine through fraud. According to the investigation, the losses amounted to over UAH 63.8 million.
In early December 2019, the HACC imposed on Alperin a preventive measure in the form of arrest with an alternative of bail in the amount of UAH 70 million. However, half of these funds were later recovered by the state because he failed to surrender his Israeli passport.
In April 2021, the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) imposed personal sanctions for the first time in Ukraine's history against ten smugglers who, according to the intelligence services, are "leaders" in this field. The NSDC sanctions also affected companies associated with Vadym Alperin .
The investigation was completed in November 2020. The case was submitted to the HACC in August 2022.
The decision to close the case was made by HACC judges Oleksii Kravchuk, Yevhen Kruk, and Inna Bilous. The full text will be announced on 17 October.
