Customs officer who had been bribed with $700,000 was returned to work
Mykhailo Burdeinyi, a defendant in the high-profile case of smuggling 700 thousand dollars, has been transferred to work at the new customs office. Since October 22, he has been the head of the customs clearance department No. 6 at the Yahodyn customs post.
This was reported by the Center for Investigative Journalism "Power of Truth", Censor.NET informs.
As a reminder, in June 2021, on the Kyiv-Chop road in the Rivne region, officers of the State Bureau of Investigation stopped an Audi Q7 driven by customs officer Mykhailo Burdeinyi. During the search, law enforcement officers found more than $704,300 in the car's trunk. Law enforcement officers opened cases under several articles of the Criminal Code. However, it later became known that the court did not seize the entire amount, but only $690,300.
However, after almost a year and a half of investigation, at the end of 2022, the case against Burdeinyi was closed. The money turned out not to be his, but rather the real owner decided to donate it to the needs of the Armed Forces.
Volyn Customs spokeswoman Valentyna Chernysh explained that all suspicions against Mykhailo Burdeinyi had been cleared.
"He has court rulings that he is not guilty, that the money is not his, and that the owner transferred the money to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, so there are no legal grounds to dismiss Burdeinyi," she commented.
According to the spokeswoman, since 2015, the customs officer had been working at the Volyn Customs of the State Fiscal Service. In 2019, he was transferred to the staff of the renewed customs office. The logic of that reform was to separate customs from the tax service. As a result, a separate legal entity emerged - the Volyn Customs of the State Customs Service. While the criminal proceedings against Mykhailo Burdeinyi were ongoing, he kept his job at this agency. Subsequently, the Volyn Customs ceased to exist as a legal entity and is now a subdivision of the State Customs Service and is directly subordinated to it.
At the end of October 2024, Mykhailo Burdeinyi was promoted to a new position. He is now the head of the customs clearance department No. 6 at the Yahodyn customs post.
"For a long time, given the high-profile case, no decision was made on Burdeinyi. However, since all law enforcement agencies cleared him of all suspicion and the charges against him were not confirmed, he had to be appointed to a new structure. This is what was done. At the Volyn Customs of the State Customs Service, Burdeinyi held a slightly higher position than he does now," Chernysh said.
Burdeinyi was appointed to his new position in October by the acting head of Volyn Customs, Andrii Chaborai. On 6 November, after the information about this personnel decision became public, he returned to work in Lviv region, and an official from Kyiv Customs will temporarily manage Volyn Customs.
