Case description
Serhii Filonenko, director of the Izium Defense Plant, is accused of receiving a more than UAH 2 million bribe. In exchange for the bribe, he was supposed to conceal unjustified payments for military goods.
According to the investigation, between September 2016 and January 2017, Filonenko received a bribe of over UAH 2.44 million from Optymumspetsdetal LLC. In return for the bribe, the plant director was supposed to conceal fraudulent payments for the supply of military goods in favor of this enterprise.
Filonenko, as Director of the state-owned enterprise Izium Instrument-Making Plant, allegedly devised a scheme under which he was to sign documents for the supply of goods and make payments for them, although in fact the goods were never delivered.
According to an agreement with other participants in the scheme, once Filonenko paid for these documents (specifications) between the plant and Optymumspetsdetal, part of the money remained in the company’s accounts (initially 32%, and after 20 December 2016 — 35%), while the remainder (68% and 65%, respectively) was transferred to Filonenko as a kickback.
According to the investigation, in a letter to the head of the security service of the state concern, Filonenko admitted that the goods had been procured from this company without a competitive procedure, despite its lack of experience with this type of product and its existing tax debts. At the same time, he assured that the enterprise was ready to assume all risks related to the payment.
In total, from September 20, 2016 to January 16, 2017, Filonenko unlawfully transferred UAH 4 million to the company’s account. Of this amount, he personally received almost UAH 2.5 million in undue benefits.
The defense insists that the case should be closed due to the absence of a criminal offence. According to the defense, the key piece of evidence — WhatsApp correspondence — is inadmissible, as its authenticity was never established. The messages were allegedly provided by a third party who remains unidentified, and the data were not obtained through official channels as required by law. The defense also questions the reliability of the content of the messages — they may have been edited to favor the prosecution.
Moreover, the NABU and the SAPO established that Filonenko had made false statements in his 2020 declaration. An apartment in Bulgaria owned by his wife was not included. Its price was equal to UAH 1.33 million in 2020.
Currently, Filonenko is charged under Article 368(4) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, the part of the case related to false declaration was closed.
The HACC found Filonenko not guilty of the charge and acquitted him. The court concluded that the submitted documents confirmed the proper execution of business transactions between Izium Instrument-Making Plant and Optymumspetsdetal without any shortages. In the court’s view, the prosecutor failed to provide any direct evidence of the crime, relying solely on a set of circumstantial evidence. The WhatsApp correspondence was deemed inadmissible as evidence, as it was obtained in violation of the defendant’s constitutional rights to privacy and confidentiality of correspondence. Information obtained by journalists in the course of investigations may only be considered advisory in nature, not evidentiary.
In a separate opinion, one of the judges stated that there were no grounds for acquitting Filonenko. According to the submitted consignment notes, Optymumspetsdetal supplied, and Izium Instrument-Making Plant accepted, products worth a total of UAH 6.9 million, but a comparison of the specifications suggests that some of the goods were not actually delivered.
The analysis of the correspondence indicates the use of coded language (e.g., “candies” and “nuts”) to refer to money, which leaves no doubt about the existence of a conspiracy and an attempt to conceal the true nature of the conversations. The journalists who published the messages lawfully withheld the identity of their source, in line with the principles of freedom of speech. Given the ongoing armed aggression and the importance of exposing corruption in the defense sector, the content of the journalistic investigation should be considered by the court as containing information of public importance, directly related to the subject matter of the criminal proceedings.
Overall, the investigation into Optymumspetsdetal has been ongoing since early 2019, following the exposure of a large-scale corruption scandal in the defense industry.
Journalists from Bihus.info at the time published information indicating that Ukrainian defense enterprises had been purchasing spare parts for military equipment from Russia. These parts were allegedly smuggled into the country without proper quality control. The main figures in the case were the owner of Optymumspetsdetal Andrii Rohoza, and his business partners, Vitalii Zhukov and Ihor Hladkovskyi, the son of then First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleh Hladkovskyi.
In September 2024, an appeal proceeding was initiated. The case is currently under review by the HACC Appeals Chamber.
