Corruption in the Supreme Court: bail of 17,500 euros set for retired judge Prokopenko

The High Anti-Corruption Court has chosen a preventive measure in the form of bail amounting to 900,000 hryvnias for retired Supreme Court judge Oleksandr Prokopenko in a corruption case involving the Supreme Court.

This was reported by the outlet Sudovy Reporter.

The prosecutor had requested bail of 10.5 million hryvnias (204,000 euros), but the court set a significantly lower amount.

In addition to bail, the suspect was assigned further obligations: to appear when summoned by an investigator, prosecutor, or court; to report any change of residence; to refrain from communicating with witnesses; and to surrender travel documents. The court denied requests for a prohibition on leaving his place of residence and for the wearing of an electronic monitoring device.

According to the outlet, three years ago Supreme Court judge Prokopenko was found to have 2,300 dollars in marked bills. According to the investigation’s theory, this money had previously been passed as an unlawful benefit to court chairman Kniazev by businessman Zhevago. The prosecution alleges that Kniazev distributed the money among the judges. At the same time, Prokopenko and several other judges voted against the ruling favorable to Zhevago.

Prokopenko himself denies receiving money from Kniazev. He put forward the theory that the money could have come to him by chance — through a currency exchange point where Kniazev had exchanged part of the funds.

Prokopenko’s case has become another episode in a large-scale corruption investigation into the Supreme Court. Previously, the High Anti-Corruption Court set bail of 3 million hryvnias for Supreme Court judge Zhanna Yelenina. Supreme Court judges Iryna Hryhoreva and Ihor Zhelezny, also suspected in the corruption scheme, were assigned bail of 2.5 million hryvnias and 2 million hryvnias respectively.