Anti-corruption court approves plea deal with ex-SBU official in Ukrzaliznytsia case

A panel of Ukraine's High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) approved on 13 October a plea agreement between a prosecutor of the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) and a former official of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) described as one of the organisers of the misappropriation of funds of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia, the state railway, and the laundering of the proceeds, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said in a statement on its official channel. The agreement carries a UAH 204 million fine, UAH 60 million in damages to the railway and the special confiscation of three Kyiv apartments and UAH 325.8 million.

The defendant, who is not named, fully admitted guilt and undertook to cooperate with the prosecution, according to NABU. The undertaking covers two things: exposing other SBU employees, and giving information on, and helping to investigate, a separate offence that falls within NABU's jurisdiction. NABU does not describe that offence.

Adding the fine, the damages, the charitable payment, the cash confiscation and an earlier UAH 30 million bail transfer gives about UAH 700 million in money terms, before the value of the apartments, a Data Desk sum of the figures in the NABU statement. The custodial sentence, by contrast, is suspended.

What the agreement requires

The court found the defendant guilty under Part 3 of Article 27, Part 5 of Article 191 and Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code, the provisions NABU cites for organising the misappropriation and for laundering, according to the statement. The terms are:

• Eight years' imprisonment, with a three-year ban on holding organisational, administrative or economic posts in military formations and law enforcement bodies.
• Release from serving the sentence on probation, with a three-year probation period and procedural obligations.
• A fine of UAH 204 million, payable over one year in quarterly instalments of UAH 51 million.
• UAH 60 million in compensation to Ukrzaliznytsia within 12 months of the verdict taking effect.
• UAH 80 million to the charitable foundation Come Back Alive, earmarked as charitable aid for shooting down reconnaissance and strike drones, within 12 months of the verdict taking effect.
• Special confiscation to the state of three apartments in the Novopecherski Lypky residential complex in Kyiv, two of 102.3 square metres and one of 183.5 square metres, and of UAH 325,780,317, payable within 18 months of the verdict taking effect.

Earlier in the case, at the defendant's initiative, UAH 30 million posted as bail was transferred to support the Armed Forces, the statement says.

What the statement does not say

The NABU statement does not give the total loss to Ukrzaliznytsia, the period of the scheme, the number of other defendants or the procedural status of their cases. It does not say whether the verdict has been appealed or when it takes effect, which matters because most payment deadlines run from that date. It does not say how the value of the confiscated apartments was assessed.

Nor does it say how the court weighed the cooperation undertaking against the suspended sentence. Under the agreement, the payments to the railway, the charity and the state all fall due within 12 to 18 months of the verdict taking effect, so the last payment would fall due up to 18 months after that date.

Where it sits in the HACC record

Plea agreements already feature in the court's high-profile docket. In the first half of 2026, 55 HACC guilty verdicts against 76 people came into force, according to NABU and SAPO's results for the period, which also record the court's approval of a plea agreement with a former head of the Supreme Court, who received five years in prison with confiscation of property and funds and agreed to testify against accomplices. The same report lists cases against current and former officials in the energy and defence sectors, and a new round of suspicions in the Supreme Court bribery case.

The next dated step is the verdict taking legal effect, from which the 12-month and 18-month payment periods run; the statement gives no date for it.