The Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) has dismissed the charges against Yuriy Bolokhovets, CEO of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine,” according to a statement by lawyer Volodymyr Volodymyrov on Facebook.
According to a statement by the Advanq Law Firm (ADVANQ), which provided legal representation, the court’s decision is final and cannot be appealed. According to the lawyer, the court found the charges against the head of the state-owned enterprise to be unfounded.
“Even before the case was transferred to NABU, the investigation had done a tremendous amount of work, gathering a large amount of material, but was unable to find evidence of land seizure, receipt and legalization of illegal funds, or abuse of official authority. Four of the five charges were not confirmed at the investigation stage, and in court we managed to prove the groundlessness of the last one,” Volodymyr said.
He emphasized that the reason for the persecution of Bolokhovets was the forest reform, as a result of which “the old system was destroyed, and billions in revenues from the sale of state timber began to be paid into the budget.”
The lawyer recalled that last year Bolokhovets was held in custody for two months with an “unrealistic bail amount” imposed, and his family, colleagues, and defenders were also subjected to pressure and information attacks. At the same time, he expressed his respect for the anti-corruption authorities for their objective analysis of the materials despite external pressure.
The press service of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” emphasized that the pressure on the CEO was due to his position on the introduction of transparent market mechanisms for the sale of timber and the de-shadowing of the forestry industry.
As reported, Yuriy Bolokhovets was notified of the suspicion in July 2025. During the investigation, he was held in custody with the possibility of bail.
State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” is one of the largest forest users in Europe and is under the management of the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine. The enterprise manages 6.6 million hectares of state forest fund land.
The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) has announced a new suspicion of oligarch Konstantin Zhevago and his three accomplices in the case of withdrawal of UAH 519 million from the Finance and Credit Bank.
“Employees of the GBR reported a new suspicion to the former shareholder of the bank JSC “Bank Finance and Credit” Konstantin Zhevago, the former chairman of the board of the bank and his two deputies,” – reported in the Telegram channel of the GBR on Thursday.
According to the Bureau’s information, in May 2007-October 2010, Mr. Zhevago formed a criminal organization. Zhevago formed a criminal organization, which included the chairman, members of the board of JSC Bank Finance and Credit and other persons close to him. “A Ukrainian company controlled by Zhevago received a loan from JSC Bank Finance and Credit, which was done in violation of lending rules. This money was withdrawn to other offshore companies of the oligarch”, – noted in the GBR.
To conceal the illegal origin of money participants of the scheme in 2010-2015. concluded a loan agreement and more than 100 additional agreements to it between the controlled company and the bank. “The additional agreements systematically and unreasonably allowed to increase the credit limit issued by the bank to the oligarch-controlled company without any liquid collateral. Thus, the group members withdrew UAH 519 million from the Bank, which were further legalized by the participants of the scheme”, – stated in the message.
Thus, summarized in the Department, the total loss of JSC “Bank Finance and Credit” due to lending to Zhevago’s company amounted to UAH 1.4 billion.
The GBI has notified Zhevago of suspicion of creation and management of a criminal organization, embezzlement and misappropriation of property, legalization of property obtained by criminal means in a particularly large amount as part of a criminal organization. The ex-chairman of the bank and his two deputies are suspected of participation in criminal organizations, embezzlement and misappropriation of property on a particularly large scale as part of a criminal organization.
Earlier, the GBR notified about suspicion of Zhevago and a number of bank managers on another fact – the organization of embezzlement of $113 million of the financial institution. To date, the property of the suspected oligarch, as well as legal entities associated with him, in particular, the shares of his companies for hundreds of millions of hryvnias – corporate rights of companies, 26 real estate. The property of other legal entities related to the former MP was also arrested. Among other things – 14 property complexes, 21 parts of property complexes, 30 non-residential premises, 10 apartments, a helicopter, a yacht.
Back in October 2020 arrested assets worth more than 300 million UAH were transferred to the National Agency for identification, search and management of assets (ARMA). These are assets in the form of corporate rights, funds and 26 real estate objects – recreational complexes, hotels, residential and commercial premises located in the central part of Kiev, Kharkiv, Poltava, Krivoy Rog with a total area of more than 22 thousand square meters. meters.
The GBI is actively cooperating with the justice, gendarmerie and police authorities of the French Republic in the investigation.
