Ukraine's anti-corruption court gives sitting MP nine years over waste bill bribe

Ukraine's High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) on 11 September sentenced a sitting member of parliament of the ninth convocation to nine years in prison for requesting an undue advantage in return for amendments to the draft law On Waste Management, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said in a statement on its official channel. The court found him guilty under Part 4 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code.

The final sentence carries a three-year ban on holding posts connected with state or local government functions and confiscation of property, according to NABU. The court left in place bail of more than UAH 3 million until the verdict takes effect, which happens 30 days after it was announced unless it is appealed. NABU does not name the deputy.

The case concerns payment for legislative amendments. According to the statement, the deputy asked, through an intermediary and in veiled form, for $13,000 to table proposals to the waste bill and for a further $200,000 to bribe members of the relevant parliamentary committee to vote for them. The bill's subject was a commercial one: the undercover detective in the case posed as a foreign investor seeking a green tariff for waste processors.

What the court decided

On the second charge, the prosecution had relied on Part 4 of Article 27 and Part 4 of Article 369 of the Criminal Code, NABU's statement says. The court requalified the conduct under Part 2 of Article 369-2, the article NABU's statements cite for abuse of influence, and released the deputy from serving a penalty for it because the limitation period had run. The nine-year term therefore rests on the conviction under Article 368.

The money changed hands in mid-August 2020, when the first part was passed to the deputy through the intermediary. A second transfer was planned for 26 and 27 August 2020, but the operation was halted, according to NABU. The intermediary, an unofficial assistant to the deputy, was served with a notice of suspicion on 10 September 2020 and the deputy on 17 September 2020. The indictment went to court in August 2021, so the trial ran for about five years.

What the case file shows

NABU's release of 11 August 2021, issued when the case was sent to court, gives more detail. In summer 2020 the bureau received information about an organised group taking undue advantages for the use of MPs' legal powers, and placed an undercover detective inside it. The detective posed as the representative of a foreign company and said that a condition for its investment in Ukraine was the adoption of legislative initiatives giving waste-processing companies a green tariff for selling electricity, together with other regulation of their activity.

NABU stopped the operation before the second transfer because the participants learned that their activity was being documented and changed their phone numbers and handsets, according to the 2021 release. Expert examinations found no signs of editing in the audio and video recordings, and a linguistic examination confirmed that the defendants' words amounted to a request for an undue advantage and an attempt to induce the detective to bribe committee members. Real estate and vehicles of the accused were seized to secure possible confiscation. The notice of suspicion to the deputy was served after it was signed by the Prosecutor General.

What the statements do not say

Neither document names the deputy, the intermediary or the committee members the money was meant to reach, and neither says whether any of the proposed amendments was tabled or adopted in the waste management law. The September statement does not report a verdict against the intermediary. NABU's channel summarised the ruling as a conviction for requesting a bribe for proposals to the waste management bill.

The 30-day appeal period ended on 11 October 2026. As of 17 October, NABU had not reported an appeal on its official channel, and nor had SAPO, which published its own statement on the verdict; neither has said whether the verdict has taken legal effect.