Ukraine’s Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) have finalized and submitted an indictment to court against former Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov and a department head at the state enterprise «Ukrainskyi Poligrafkombinat» (Ukrainian Printing Plant). The defendants face charges of large-scale embezzlement of state funds, bribery, and money laundering totaling over €20 million.
According to investigators, while in office, Stepanov established a scheme to extort illicit gains from foreign partners. Investigation findings indicate he coerced a French supplier company to transfer copyright registered elements of Ukrainian passports and official document designs—specifically a stylized trident and the map of Ukraine—to an Estonian shell company under his control.
Through this structure, the offshore entity systematically collected royalty payments for the use of state symbols on national documents, continuing long after Stepanov left office. A substantial portion of these illicit proceeds was laundered internationally, including a direct transfer of $124,790 to the bank account of the former minister’s daughter.
The second arm of the illicit enterprise involved systemic embezzlement directly linked to procurement at the state printing plant. The co-conspirators facilitated purchases of mandatory holographic security elements for official documents at artificially inflated costs, charging 4 to 6 times the actual market price and inflicting more than €20 million in losses on the state enterprise.
«Within the framework of this case, the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) has already handed down guilty verdicts against four other participants in the scheme. Currently, nearly UAH 180 million has been seized for state revenue, and over UAH 20 million in damages has been fully reimbursed to the state enterprise. Additionally, approximately UAH 6 million was transferred by the defendants to support the Ukrainian Defense Forces,» the SAPO press service stated.
The multi-year investigation into the corruption at the «Poligrafkombinat» state enterprise required extensive international legal assistance and financial tracing across multiple foreign jurisdictions, including France and Estonia.
With the indictment officially filed, the High Anti-Corruption Court will begin hearing the evidence to render a final verdict on the high-level graft case.