Chief of the State Customs Service Maksym Nefyodov / Photo from UNIAN
The damage done to the state allegedly exceeds US$1.64 million.
Ukraine's newly created High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) has ruled that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) should open a pretrial probe into possible customs violations by head of the State Customs Service Maksym Nefyodov.
This ruling dated February 11 was posted on the website of the State Register of Court Decisions.
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According to the ruling, a citizen whose name was not disclosed lodged a claim with NABU on January 23 alleging that a group of individuals led by Nefyodov "had systematically taken bribes for delivering uncertified panels to Ukraine on the basis of a fictitious audit of supplier plants. As a result of this, the damage done to the state exceeded UAH 40 million (US$1.64 million)."
The ruling says that having registered the claim, NABU refused to open criminal proceedings on the basis of the information contained in it, after which the applicant appealed to the High Anti-Corruption Court whose investigating judge, having examined the materials of the complaint, decided to satisfy the complaint's claim.
"Given the fact that NABU detectives shall carry out a pretrial investigation into such crimes as mentioned by the applicant, the investigating judge had reason to consider that NABU's authorized persons had been inactive and failed to enter information about the criminal offense to the State Register of Pretrial Investigations within 24 hours after receiving the claim," the ruling says.
The ruling also said that the investigating judge could not verify the circumstances of the violations indicated by the citizen in the claim, but considered them to be objective and falling within NABU's jurisdiction, therefore, he obliged the Bureau to consider them as part of the pretrial investigation.
"The court decided to oblige NABU's authorized persons to include information on the criminal offenses mentioned in the claim in the State Register of Pretrial Investigations. The other part of the complaint should be dismissed. The ruling shall come into force from the moment it has been announced and shall not be appealed," it said.