Former head of the Main Housing and Operations Directorate of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleh Halushko, acquitted of corruption

Former head of the Main Housing and Operations Directorate of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleh Halushko, acquitted of corruption

The High Anti-Corruption Court found former Head of the Main Housing and Operational Department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleh Halushko, not guilty and acquitted him of charges of embezzling 21.49 million hryvnias.

This became known from the verdict in accordance with part 5 of article 191 of the Criminal Code.

On December 22, 2020, the State Bureau of Investigations and the Office of the Prosecutor General informed Halushko of suspicion of embezzling funds for the purchase of 60 apartments for servicemen in Kharkiv. On December 28, the prosecutor of the OPG transferred this case to NABU. On February 3, NABU informed Halushko about the change of the previously presented suspicion from embezzlement of property to negligent attitude of a military official to service, which caused serious consequences in a special period.

As the investigation established, the Ministry of Defence signed an agreement with the Asset Management Company "Divodor" for the purchase of 63 apartments in the residential complex "Raiduzhny." At the same time, the competitor of AMC "Divodor" was an individual entrepreneur, Kostyantyn Zhylyayev, who is the founder of the company "M-Brok," which is the founder of AMC "Divodor."

The accused did not plead guilty to consciously inflating price monitoring to commit criminal acts, nor did he acknowledge the civil lawsuit of the Ministry of Defence.

He believed that price monitoring or the average cost of one square meter of housing did not ultimately affect the apartment procurement process. The monitoring price is not key for purchasing apartments but is approximate. At the same time, the monitoring price of one square meter of housing should not exceed the established upper limit of the price per square meter of housing area. All apartments mentioned in the indictment were purchased at the end of the year to fulfill the budget program.

He noted that the case materials proved a gradual increase in the monitoring cost of one square meter of the total housing area. After the proposed Ministry of Defence purchase price of 14,008 UAH per square meter, no construction corporations showed interest in the offer, as well as after increasing the price to 17,022 UAH, due to which the tenders did not take place.

The prosecutor in the indictment points out Halushko’s intent as the head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s GKEU to embezzle someone else’s property by abusing his official position in especially large amounts. At the same time, abuse of office involves any intentional use by an official contrary to the interests of service of their rights and opportunities, conditioned by their official position.

From the evidence presented to the court, it is not evident that Halushko in any way used his official capabilities, as his actions corresponded to the existing regulatory provisions.

The court also noted that none of the questioned witnesses reported receiving orders from the officer or anyone on his instructions to intentionally inflate the monitoring results of one square meter of the total housing area.

Moreover, after analyzing the prosecution’s evidence, the court did not find signs of illegality and abuse of office (as a method of committing a crime) in the actions of the accused Halushko, as the prosecution did not provide evidence of normalizing the monitoring procedure and did not prove that the officer’s actions contradicted other internal documents of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or general legal acts of Ukraine.

The mere fact of Halushko signing the monitoring results conducted by the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s GKEU working group cannot indicate his interest in inflating the monitoring cost of one square meter of the total housing area, since the final price for purchasing housing was set by the tender commission based on the results of the conducted housing procurement competitions.

It follows from the above that there are no signs in Halushko’s actions of an objective side of a criminal offense under part 5 of article 191 of the Criminal Code, as the prosecution did not prove the illegality of such an action or the abuse of office by the officer (as a method of committing embezzlement).

The verdict was issued by a panel of judges consisting of: presiding judge Kateryna Shyroka, judges Timur Khamzin, and Olha Salandyak. The decision has not yet come into force and may be appealed in the Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court. The court also reimbursed the state for the costs associated with conducting examinations, with a total sum exceeding 225 thousand UAH.

Previously, the Office of the Prosecutor General transferred to NABU a criminal case on suspicion of embezzlement of property by Oleh Halushko, whom NABU already suspects of embezzling 37 million UAH allocated for the arrangement of the "Shyroky Lan" training ground. According to the investigation, in 2017-2018, Halushko, head of construction, reconstruction, and capital repair management of military facilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s Main Department and the head of the construction technical supervision department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s Main Department, in collusion with representatives of the private company "Rist," namely its director and beneficial owner, organized the acceptance of works and services for arranging the "Shyroky Lan" field camp in the village of Ulyanivka, Mykolaiv region.

NABU noted that despite the actual non-performance of the works on field camp arrangement, the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s officials still "facilitated" the funds transfer to the company’s accounts. As a result, the state suffered damages amounting to more than 37 million UAH, confirmed by the conclusion of the State Audit Service and conducted examinations in the case.

Among the suspects are former head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s GKEU Oleh Halushko, head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s GKEU Serhiy Chaharnyi, former head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s GKEU department Viktor Antonushchuk, beneficiary of the private company "RIST" Roman Balykin, and former director of this firm Kostyantyn Chepusov.