The illicit enrichment case against Serhiy Balashov, acting head of Police Department No. 2 of the Poltava Regional Police Department, has been transferred from the Poltava Regional Prosecutor’s Office to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Poltava refused to hear a complaint from the official’s lawyer seeking to dismiss the criminal proceedings, citing a violation of territorial jurisdiction rules.
On August 24, the Poltava court returned the complaint regarding prosecutorial inaction to the police officer’s defense counsel. The attorney had attempted to challenge the Kyiv prosecutors’ actions in a Poltava court, even though jurisdiction over such complaints belongs to the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv, where the Office of the Prosecutor General is located.
Serhiy Balashov was formally served with a notice of suspicion regarding illicit enrichment on June 15. The following day, a local court ordered him held in custody with the option of posting a 10 million UAH bail. The suspect denied any wrongdoing and called the allegations baseless. Bail was subsequently posted on his behalf, after which the law enforcement officer was suspended from his duties, and the pre-trial investigation period was extended until September 15.
According to the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), even before the official suspect notice for 16 million UAH in illicit enrichment was issued, audits of Balashov’s 2024–2025 financial disclosures revealed nearly 30 million UAH in undeclared assets.
«The officer stated in official documents that he resided in service quarters in Zinkiv, whereas he actually lived in Poltava with Yanina Aranchii, head of the regional State Consumer Service, and their child in a home owned by her mother.»
Beyond the illicit enrichment case, Serhiy Balashov and Yanina Aranchii are named in separate State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) inquiries. Investigators are currently gathering evidence regarding suspected phantom employment within the regional State Consumer Service.
According to investigators, the department head, alongside regional laboratory chief accountant Tetyana Radevych, officially hired a woman who drew a salary from the state budget while actually working as a private nanny for the official’s child.