The court reinstated the Lviv customs officer suspected of bribery

The Lviv District Administrative Court reinstated Serhiy Butov, suspected of systematic bribery, at the Lviv Customs Office. At the end of November last year, Serhiy Butov, the state inspector of the Department of Combating Smuggling and Customs Violations of Lviv Customs, was detained while receiving another tranche of $16,000.

In total, according to law enforcement officers, he received $38,000 in bribes. Serhiy Butov was released from Lviv Customs for violating the oath of a civil servant after he was caught red-handed while receiving $16,000 in bribes. Based on this fact, the customs office conducted an official investigation and opened disciplinary proceedings, as a result of which the violator was dismissed from his job.

In January 2024, Serhiy Butov filed a lawsuit demanding that the order of the Lviv Customs on dismissal be recognized as illegal and canceled and that he be reinstated. He also demanded to collect from the Lviv customs office the average earnings for the period of forced absenteeism.

The case was considered by judge Ulyana Bratychak. According to the court, the notification of suspicion of Serhiy Butov in receiving bribes (Part 3, Part 4, Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) is not evidence of his guilt and could not be a reason for his release from customs.

In turn, the notification of suspicion as part of the pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings dated 06.26.2023 cannot serve as proper and admissible evidence within the meaning of Art. Art. 73, 74 of the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine and cannot be regarded as indisputable evidence of the presence of guilt in the actions of a person when committing a disciplinary offense, since this is not provided for by the current legislation

By the court's decision dated September 17, Serhiy Butov was reinstated as state inspector of the Department of Combating Contraband and Customs Violations of the Lviv Customs from January 30 of this year. Also, 152,000 hryvnias of salary for the period of forced absenteeism were collected from the Lviv customs office in his favor. This decision can still be appealed.

We will remind, Serhiy Butov was detained by the SBI employees on November 30 in the hotel complex "Panska Gora" on the bypass road of Lviv during the transfer of the second tranche of a bribe in the amount of over 16,000 hryvnias. According to the investigation, the customs officer demanded a bribe from the importer of construction materials for assistance in the quick registration of goods under the guise of humanitarian aid without paying the mandatory customs payments. The customs officer determined the amount of the unlawful remuneration as a percentage of the total value of the cargo. In total, the inspector managed to receive $38,000 in bribes. The case is still under investigation.

Serhii Butov is a member of the EBK database.

We also wrote that the ex-management of the Forest Cemetery is suspected of embezzling almost 900,000 hryvnias allocated for the construction of the columbarium wall.