The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecution Office (SAP) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) have concluded their pre-trial investigation into the former Deputy Head of the Kyiv Customs, Serhiy Tupalskyi. The ex-official is accused of laundering over $2 million, which was funneled into the construction of a hotel complex at the Bukovel resort. The SAP press service made the official announcement.
According to law enforcement, between 2020 and 2021, the customs official built and commissioned a hotel complex featuring an on-site restaurant in the village of Polyanytsya, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. The total investment exceeded $2 million—an amount that significantly bypassed the official income of the official’s family and lacked any legal source of origin.
To conceal the illicitly acquired asset from mandatory asset declarations, the suspect registered the land plots and real estate under a relative’s name. Despite this, the former official retained full operational control over the hospitality business and drove its key management decisions.
Investigators established that the newly built resort was subsequently used to fully «wash» the illicit funds. Throughout 2020–2025, the former customs executive generated official profits from the hotel’s operations, thereby establishing a seemingly legitimate source of ongoing income.
«It has been documented that between 2020 and 2025, he received official income from the hotel’s operations, which helped permanently legalize the unverified funds,» the case files state.
The case files have now been opened to the defense for review, after which the indictment will be forwarded to the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine (HACC). Under current legislation, laundering property obtained through criminal means on an especially large scale carries a prison sentence along with asset confiscation.