Corruption "with a discount": how Yuriy Bolokhovets got rid of the suspicion through 22 seconds of audio recording and new Criminal Code limits

Corruption "with a discount": how Yuriy Bolokhovets got rid of the suspicion through 22 seconds of audio recording and new Criminal Code limits

Stealing less than 9 million hryvnia per year is no longer a criminal offense.

In January 2025 NGL.media published an investigation about the wealth of the country’s chief forester: «How did the general director of the state enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” Yuriy Bolokhovets set up a private farmstead of over 80 hectares?»

«…in November 2023, the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) opened a criminal proceeding under four articles related to land grabbing and illegal enrichment. SBI investigators suspected that Yuriy Bolokhovets receives unofficial income, which he invests in real estate, including in his native village of Ivanhorod. Thus, according to tax inspection data, over four years, Yuriy Bolokhovets’s family acquired assets worth 22.8 million UAH with an official income of 10.4 million UAH.

This same criminal case mentions the “farmstead” in Ivanhorod, which both we and the SBI investigators visited. The territory of this complex is fenced with a solid fence, consists of 14 privatized land plots, and encroaches on part of the communal forest as well as an area used by the state enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” headed by Bolokhovets.»

Based on the facts cited by the journalists, on July 21 Bolokhovets was served with suspicion of illegal enrichment and was detained.

However, just two months later he was released from pre-trial detention under bail of 9.8 million.

At the same time, the SBI released statistics on the investigation of 587 criminal cases related to schemes in the forestry sector.

In 2023–2025, 178 indictments were sent to court regarding 298 persons. The nature of the detected offenses, their geography, and quantity indicate not isolated incidents, but the presence of signs of a centralized, vertically organized system of abuses,» said SBI Director Oleksiy Sukhachov.

The statistics of sad cases in the forestry sector were confirmed by a funny fact.

Deputy Head of the Office of the President Viktor Mykyta stated that two McDonald’s restaurants in Zakarpattia pay as much in taxes as the entire forestry sector of the region.

From forest logging in 2024, Zakarpattia received 17 million UAH, while two «McDonald’s» paid 16 million UAH.

Can you imagine the scale of corruption?

But the most interesting thing in this story is something else.

Ten days after serving the suspicion to Bolokhovets, on July 31, 2025, by a prosecutor’s ruling, his case was transferred to NABU, and the judicial consideration of the case moved to the HACC, where lawyers immediately filed complaints about the illegality of the served suspicion.

One of the arguments was that Bolokhovets acquired property worth an amount exceeding his income by 7,925,082 UAH, but according to amendments to the norms of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the minimum threshold for criminal liability is now 9,084,000 UAH.

Quote:

«Since the difference between Bolokhovets’s legitimate income and expenses amounts to 7,925,082 UAH, which does not reach 9,084,000 UAH, his actions do not constitute a crime».

Is it okay to steal 7.9 million? Up to 9 million — that’s not corruption?

But the lawyers’ first attempt to declare the suspicion illegal failed.

On February 17, the investigating judge of the HACC denied the complaint.

However, already on March 10, the appellate chamber of the HACC granted the lawyers’ complaint for Bolokhovets and canceled the SBI’s suspicion against him.
The basis for this decision was (attention) the fact of an incomplete audio recording of the court hearing on March 6, 2025, and a short record of the investigating judge reading out the decision in the case.

«As for the audio file, it records the probable announcement of the decision in the case, while the duration of the recording is 22 seconds and does not correspond to the full scope of the operative part of the investigating judge’s ruling».

And since this was already a decision of the appellate chamber of the HACC, it is final, so the suspicion against the chief forester Bolokhovets has been definitively canceled.

There is no corruption in the forestry sector, and enrichment up to 9 million is not a crime.

However, what to do when two «McDonald’s» pay as much in taxes as all the foresters of Zakarpattia — the HACC did not answer. The duration of the court hearing recording is more important.

It’s interesting whether anyone will start analyzing the duration of audio recordings in other cases after such a HACC decision. A great precedent for closing proceedings.