HACC has ordered NABU to investigate possible illicit enrichment by prosecutor Petrov • Версия для печати • ANTIKOR portal

HACC has ordered NABU to investigate possible illicit enrichment by prosecutor Petrov

The High Anti-Corruption Court has ordered NABU to investigate possible illicit enrichment by Dmytro Petrov, Deputy Head of the Department of International Legal Cooperation at the Office of the Prosecutor General, who keeps 10 million hryvnias in cash.

This was revealed in a ruling by the HACC.

On September 11, 2024, the complainant submitted a statement to NABU, alleging that Prosecutor Petrov, who has been working in prosecutorial bodies since 2010, including in leadership positions at the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019, as well as at the State Migration Service, acquired assets worth 232.6 million hryvnias.

According to the complainant, these assets significantly exceed his legitimate income and the income of his close relatives. The statement suggested that Petrov concealed the origin of the property by registering it under the names of relatives, including his grandmother, mother, and wife, and declared assets incompatible with his official income.

The statement was received by NABU on September 13, 2024, but the information was not entered into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations (URPTI), and the complainant was not provided with an extract from the register.

On September 20, a lawyer filed a complaint with the HACC, citing NABU’s inaction and violation of Article 214 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which obliges the initiation of an investigation within 24 hours of receiving a statement about a criminal offense.

The HACC investigating judge, having considered the complaint in an open hearing, concluded that it should be granted. The court determined that:

The statement contains circumstances that may indicate the commission of a criminal offense under Part 1 of Article 368-5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illicit enrichment). NABU failed to comply with the requirements of Article 214 of the Criminal Procedure Code by not entering the information into the URPTI within the stipulated timeframe.

The case falls under the jurisdiction of the HACC, as it concerns a possible corruption offense committed by a prosecutor, which meets the conditions of Clause 1, Part 5 of Article 216 of the Criminal Procedure Code and Article 15 of the Law "On the Prosecutor’s Office."

The court ordered NABU to enter the information into the URPTI and initiate a pre-trial investigation. The ruling became legally binding upon its announcement and is not subject to separate appeal.