HACC Orders Forced Summons of Witness in Ex-Police Chief Case

The higher anti-corruption court made a decision to compulsorily deliver a witness to the hearing in the case of the former head of the National Security Service in the Odesa region, Dmytro Golovin, and two other persons. They are accused of smuggling counterfeit cigarettes worth more than UAH 13 million.

The court recognized the reasons for the witness's non-appearance as irresponsible and ruled that he should be brought to the hearing. VAKS noted that the witness must be present in court to testify in the case investigated by NABU with the participation of SAP.

According to the investigation data, in November 2017, law enforcement officers searched the Odesa Sea Trade Port, where they found 3.6 million packs of cigarettes intended for transit.

After the seizure, the cigarettes were stored in a warehouse in Odesa, which allowed them to enter Ukraine without the appropriate customs clearance.

The investigation claims that it was planned to draw up a fictitious act of destruction of the goods and sell cigarettes in Ukraine via the Internet or ship them to Europe. However, in 2018, the General Prosecutor's Office transferred this case to the Odesa Police, but instead of the Investigative Department of the General Prosecutor's Office in the Odesa Region, the case went to another unit.

According to the prosecutors, the former head of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Odesa region, together with his deputy Konstantin Geyk, developed a new plan to appropriate the seized cigarettes. Local businessman Oleksandr Chudakov and a number of other unidentified persons were involved in the conspiracy. According to the plan, the cigarettes were to be handed over to the enterprise controlled by Chudakov. Such an enterprise became LLC "Agat-2016", where Valery Kapitanchuk was listed as the head. The latter is currently hiding abroad, but he was declared suspicious in absentia, and the High Anti-Corruption Court allowed an absentee investigation to be conducted against him.

Golovin's deputy signed an agreement on storage of physical evidence with Agat-2016 LLC. Meanwhile, Golovin ordered his subordinates to transport the confiscated cigarettes to the warehouse of this enterprise. To implement the plan, he provided investigators with Chudakov's contact number, presenting him as an employee of the Security Service of Ukraine, who was supposed to monitor the process of transporting goods.

In September 2018, cigarettes disappeared from the warehouse. Some of them were sold over the Internet, and the rest were shipped to Europe.

Subsequently, the owner of "Agat-2016" LLC changed. According to official documents, the enterprise was sold for UAH 1.5 million, but in fact the new owner, Gennady Prokhorov, bought it for only $100. According to the investigation, the implementation of this scheme caused losses to the owners of seized cigarettes in the amount of over UAH 13.46 million.