Rodovid Bank’s Former CEO Yehorenko Escaped Punishment Due to Legal and Procedural Flaws — Expert
Dmytro Yehorenko, the former head of Rodovid Bank who was found guilty of helping embezzle millions of hryvnias from the bank, escaped punishment because of procedural flaws and years of delays in the criminal proceedings.
This is one of the key conclusions from an interview with Oksana Kopiichuk, Legal Adviser at Transparency International Ukraine and coordinator of the HACC Decided platform, published by Yurydychna Gazeta. In the interview, she analyzes the criminal case against former Rodovid Bank CEO Dmytro Yehorenko.
As Kopiichuk noted, in April this year Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) found Yehorenko guilty of forgery in office and aiding and abetting the misappropriation of more than UAH 18 million in bank funds — an especially large amount under Ukrainian law.
The court sentenced him to 10 years in prison, with confiscation of property and a ban on holding certain positions. Despite the guilty verdict, however, Yehorenko was released from serving the sentence because the statute of limitations had expired. By then, around 15 years had passed since the investigation began.
Kopiichuk believes the case points to a broader systemic problem: procedural shortcomings and excessively lengthy criminal proceedings can ultimately allow those found guilty to avoid punishment. Addressing it, she says, will require changes to Ukraine’s criminal procedure legislation.
"This case clearly shows that establishing guilt does not always lead to actual punishment. For society, it is not only the verdict that matters, but also whether a case is resolved within a reasonable timeframe. When proceedings drag on for years, an obvious question arises: will there ever be a final outcome?" Kopiichuk said.
In her view, cases like this undermine public confidence in the effectiveness of the justice system in combating corruption and highlight the need to review certain provisions of procedural law.
"It is hard to call this an effective outcome. Justice is not only about establishing guilt. A court ruling must also have real consequences," Kopiichuk stressed.
The Transparency International Ukraine adviser said there was no single reason why the case took so long, pointing instead to a combination of systemic problems.
"The first and most obvious lesson is the cost of transferring a case between different authorities. Over 14 years of investigation, at least three different agencies handled the case. The second concerns the pre-trial investigation itself: the proceedings were suspended and resumed at least eight times.
"The third lesson is for the court and the justice system as a whole. HACC considered the merits of Yehorenko’s case for just over two years, which is a reasonable timeframe. The main problem arose earlier: at the previous stages, the criminal justice system failed to give the case sufficient priority to bring it to a verdict in time," Kopiichuk concluded.
Former Rodovid Bank CEO Dmytro Yehorenko was charged with forgery in office and aiding and abetting the unlawful misappropriation of the bank’s funds.
According to media reports, in 2009 Yehorenko signed an addendum to an agreement with UkrGazEnergo, a company linked to Dmytro Firtash, that increased the interest rate on a deposit worth approximately half a billion hryvnias by more than fivefold.
The original deposit agreement, signed in February 2008, carried a market-rate interest rate of 9% per annum. In March 2009, however, Yehorenko, who was then chairman of the bank’s management board, signed an addendum that unjustifiably raised the rate to 48% per annum.
According to investigators, the decision caused substantial losses to Rodovid Bank.
