According to Sudovyi Reporter, on December 10, 2025, the HACC approved a plea agreement and found the former head of the Western Appellate Commercial Court Borys Plotnitskyi guilty in a case involving judges demanding over $1 million in bribes.

It is known that the plea agreement was concluded on November 13, 2025, under the charges against Plotnitskyi for criminal offenses under Article 189(4), Article 27(3), Article 368(4), Article 28(2),  and Article 369-2(2) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Considering these articles, it involves particularly serious extortion, organization of bribery of an official, and trading in influence by prior conspiracy by a group of persons.

The verdict itself is сlassified. We will request from the SAPO what punishment was assigned to Plotnitskyi under the agreement.

Recently, the NABU and the SAPO completed a pre-trial investigation in this case. According to the investigation, former chairs of courts offered an entrepreneur to “fix the cases” considered in the appellate commercial court for a reward of $1 million. The received funds were planned to be distributed among themselves according to their roles in the scheme.

In addition to Plotnitskyi, the case involves former heads of the Commercial Court of Lviv Region Vasyl Artymovych and Mykhailo Yurkevych, and judge of the Western Appellate Commercial Court Iryna Malekh.