The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) sent a case to court on charges of the mayor of Sumy and the director of the Department of Infrastructure of the city of Sumy City Council of receiving a bribe in the amount of 2.13 million UAH.
This was reported in NABU.
Investigators found that the accused – the mayor of Sumy, Alexander Lysenko, and the director of the city's infrastructure department, Alexander Zhurba, demanded money for a decision to establish a tariff for household waste management and not to create artificial obstacles in the enterprise's activities. Therefore, the owner of the company, which was engaged in garbage collection, turned to law enforcement agencies.
Photo: nabu.gov.ua.
On October 2, 2023, after the transfer of the last tranche in the amount of UAH 1.4 million, officials of the Sumy City Council were detained "red-handed". Them reported on suspicion under Part 4 of Art. 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine "Acceptance of an offer, promise or receipt of an illegal benefit by an official". The sanction of this article provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 5 to 10 years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a term of up to 3 years and with confiscation of property.
On October 9, 2023, the investigating judge of the Higher Anti-Corruption Court granted the request of NABU and SAP and removed the Sumy mayor from his post.
The investigation into this corruption offense was completed at the end of March this year. Its details can be found in the video from NABU.
At the beginning of October 2023, EcoPolitic already talked about detention of Sumy officials "on the spot" for demanding bribes from local businessmen for the unhindered conduct of business in the city.
