Businessman Kushnir Avoids Jail for Bribe to Council Head

The HIgh Anti-Corruption Court approved a plea agreement between the SAPO and Chernivtsi businessman, former deputy of the Chernivtsi Regional Council Yuriy Kushnir.

 He received a three-year suspended sentence for bribing the head of the Chernivtsi Regional Council for the illegal lease of the Brusnytsia sanatorium.

The mitigating circumstance was the transfer of UAH 10 million to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and another UAH 5 million in bail. This is the second sentence of the Supreme Court of Criminal Appeals for Yuriy Kushnir. In September 2024, the Supreme Court of Criminal Appeals sentenced him to three years of suspended sentence for dealing with customs payments worth millions of hryvnias.

In the winter of 2020, the NABU charged Yuriy Kushnir with suspicion of giving a bribe of $180,000 to the then head of the Chernivtsi regional council, Ivan Muntyan. The businessman provided the money for the right to lease the communal sanatorium "Brusnytsia" for a period of 50 years. In February 2020, the head of the Chernivtsi regional council, Ivan Muntyan, also received suspicion from the SAPO.

The official demanded a bribe of UAH 400,000 from the businessman for settling this matter. The official was detained while receiving part of the agreed amount – USD 180,000. During the investigation of the case, NABU published audio and video recordings of Muntyan’s conversations with the businessman about the bribe for the Brusnytsia sanatorium.

The investigation and trials in this case lasted five years. On February 10, 2025, the Supreme Court of Criminal Appeals approved a plea agreement concluded between the prosecutor of the SAPO and an entrepreneur from the Chernivtsi region. The judges took into account the previous verdict, in which Yuriy Kushnir was convicted of customs payments fraud, and sentenced him to a final sentence of 6 years in prison with a fine of over 83 million UAH. He was also deprived of the right to engage in activities related to the export and import of goods to Ukraine for a period of 2 years and 8 months, with a fine of 17 thousand UAH.

 However, the court released the businessman from prison, setting a probationary period of three years, the SAPO said in a statement. A mitigating circumstance was that Yuriy Kushnir undertook, after signing the agreement, to transfer UAH 10 million to the account of the "Return Alive" charity fund to meet the needs of the army aviation of the Land Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition, UAH 5 million in bail will be transferred to the needs of the Armed Forces. The verdict can be appealed within 30 days from the date of its announcement.

Trials regarding the receipt of a bribe by the former head of the Chernivtsi Regional Council, Ivan Muntyan, are still ongoing.

We should add that Yuriy Kushnir is a well-known businessman in Bukovina who is involved in several criminal cases. He is the founder of the Chernivtsi Building Materials Plant, the Sokil security agency, and 7 more companies. He is a beneficiary in 2 more companies. According to Chesno , on April 2, 2021, the National Security and Defense Council imposed sanctions against a dozen people and 79 companies suspected of smuggling. Yuriy Kushnir was also included in this sanctions list. In 2010, he was elected a deputy from the Party of Regions to the Chernivtsi Regional Council.

 We will remind, NABU and SAPO reported suspicion to the former Deputy Chief of the General Staff.

We also wrote that the Supreme Court of Justice has scheduled a hearing on the case of former Minister Pyvovarsky.