Lawyer Moskva involved in draft evasion case

Lviv lawyer Bohdana Moskva is involved in a criminal case involving the smuggling of tax evaders abroad, along with former customs officer Serhiy Barakhtin. The case file shows that she is suspected of being an accomplice.

In July 2024, then-current Lviv Customs officer Serhiy Barakhtin was detained for organizing a scheme for tax evaders to escape abroad. At the time, the SBU reported that the customs officer's accomplice was a 30-year-old resident of Berehove.

From the case materials published in the court registry, it is known that three suspects appear in this case, in addition to Serhiy Barakhtin and Viktoriya Valdayeva, suspicion also fell on lawyer Bohdana Moskva, who was detained by law enforcement officers in July 2024 in another case after receiving a bribe from an evader.

According to the decisions of the Halytskyi District Court of Lviv, Bohdana Moskva was suspected of committing a criminal offense under Part 5 of Article 27, Part 3 of Article 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (assistance in the illegal trafficking of men abroad) in September 2024. Two others were suspected under Part 3 of Article 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The court rulings describe one successful border crossing involving Bohdana Moskva and Serhiy Barakhtin. In particular, according to the investigation, people asked Moscow to organize an illegal border crossing, after which the lawyer told customs officer Serhiy Barakhtin about it in May 2024. The client was transported across the border in the Odessa region by a customs officer, and Bohdana Moskva, according to law enforcement, was an accomplice in this case - she communicated with the client, his relatives and the customs officer who was the organizer, another person not identified by the investigation was involved in the case. The client's relatives paid $15,000 for the illegal border crossing, which was received by Bohdana Moskva's daughter. The court ruling states that she was not aware of the commission of this crime.

The second case described in the court decisions occurred at the end of May 2024. Bohdana Moskva was no longer involved in this case, instead it was indicated that the customs officer's accomplice was a resident of Berehove and another unidentified person. The client from Lviv traveled by train to Transcarpathia, where he was met by the customs officer's accomplice. A wetsuit was purchased for the client and successfully transported across the border in early June 2024. The indictment against Barakhtin, Moskva, and Valdayeva has already been submitted to the court.

As a reminder, Bohdana Moskva is suspected of organizing a scheme for tax evaders in the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. She was charged under two articles of the Criminal Code – Part 3 of Article 332 (illegal smuggling of persons across the state border) and Part 3 of Article 369-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (acceptance of an offer, promise or receiving an unlawful benefit for influencing a decision-making process by a person authorized to perform state functions).

It was previously reported that the SSU and the police completed a pre-trial investigation into Lviv lawyer Bohdana Moskva.

Bohdana Moskva is also a figurehead of the EBK base.