The Novoselytsia District Court of the Chernivtsi Region has sentenced Maksym Maksymyuk, a former prosecutor with the Chernivtsi District Prosecutor’s Office, for demanding and receiving an unlawful benefit. According to the court verdict issued on August 21, the former official reached a plea agreement that allowed him to avoid prison time in exchange for paying over 2 million UAH in fines and donating 500,000 UAH to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Court materials show the case dates back to 2017, when Maksymyuk served as the senior prosecutor in a criminal case involving the illegal purchase, possession, and sale of cannabis. The case dragged on in court for years until December 2021, when the prosecutor decided to abuse his position by approaching the defendant’s defense attorney with an offer to lighten the charges.
The transaction took place in June 2022, several months after the full-scale invasion began. Maksymyuk accepted a $3,000 bribe from the attorney and immediately took the cash to a local currency exchange to convert it into Euros and Ukrainian Hryvnias. In return, he promised to approve a plea deal for the defendant that would yield a significantly lighter sentence than standard statutory penalties.
After nearly three years of court proceedings, the former prosecutor chose to cooperate with investigators by signing a plea agreement to dodge actual incarceration. A key factor in finalizing the plea deal was the defendant’s commitment to transfer 500,000 UAH directly to a special account supporting the Ukrainian military.
«The court approved the plea agreement and imposed the negotiated sentence: 7 years of imprisonment, suspended with a 3-year probation period, alongside an additional fine of 2.04 million UAH,» the ruling states.
Including the mandatory military donation, the total financial liability for the former prosecutor’s $3,000 bribe exceeds 2.54 million UAH.
The ruling of the Novoselytsia District Court has not yet entered into full legal force. Both the defense and prosecution have 30 days from the date of the announcement to file an appeal with the Chernivtsi Court of Appeal. If no appeal is submitted within the statutory timeframe, the verdict will take effect, and the former official will begin his probation under the supervision of state probation officers.