The High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) has imposed a preventive measure on Yuriy Brazhnyk, a member of the Poltava City Council, who is suspected of organising a large-scale corruption scheme. The court remanded the official in custody with the option of posting bail of 33 million hryvnias. The prosecutor from the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) had insisted on a higher sum — nearly 60 million hryvnias.
Yuriy Brazhnyk has been officially notified of the charges against him under Part 4 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (acceptance of a proposal, promise or receipt of an unlawful benefit by a public official on a particularly large scale).
According to the investigation, the city councillor organised a scheme of systematic extortion in April 2024. The official imposed a ‘tax’ on contractors working with the local housing and utilities department (UzhKG).
Businessmen were required to pay a fixed “kickback” amounting to 10% of the total sum of each contract concluded. If entrepreneurs refused to pay, they were threatened with the blocking of payments for work carried out.
The total amount of unlawful benefits documented by law enforcement agencies stands at 59.9 million UAH. To conceal criminal proceeds and launder money, the perpetrators used financial instruments.
“To conceal the origin of the funds and subsequently launder them, bribes amounting to millions were channelled through the X-Change network of currency exchange points,” the case files state.
The criminal investigation has made significant progress thanks to testimony from other suspects. The investigation has received incriminating evidence against Yuriy Brazhnyk from his alleged accomplices: Maksym Teslenko, deputy head of the Poltava Housing and Communal Services Department, and Volodymyr Tuzenko, a representative of a road construction company. The pre-trial investigation is currently ongoing.