The case of Vadim Alperin leaks VAKS?
The Anti-Corruption Action Center notes that “this is not the first strange decision of Judges Kruk and Bilous.”
AT Anti-Corruption Center they write that the VAKS judges “decided to transfer to another court the case of smuggling schemes at customs in relation to 6 people, including Vadim Alperin,” writes SUD.
The case of Vadim Alperin: for example, the CPC writes the following:
“WACS is leaking the case of the “king of smuggling” Alperin?
VACS judges Aleksey Kravchuk, Evgeny Kruk and Inna Bilous decided to transfer to another court the case of smuggling schemes at customs against 6 people, including Vadim Alperin. Alperin and his accomplices are accused of organizing a scheme to reduce duties on imports of goods, according to which the state suffered UAH 63.8 million in losses.
This is the same Alperin whom President Zelensky called one of the godparents of smuggling and even deprived him of Ukrainian citizenship.
Alperin’s lawyer during the pre-trial investigation said that his client allegedly simply crossed someone’s path and personally does not like President Zelensky. It seems to be the essence of criminal prosecution.
NABU and SAPO completed their investigation into the scheme in November 2020. The case came to the VAKS for consideration in August 2022, and five months later, the judges suddenly decided that it was not under the jurisdiction of Antikorsud.
Further consideration of this issue was transferred to the appeal of the VAKS, while the auto-distribution in the appeal was virtually uncontested. Only 5 judges out of 11 took part in it. All these judges got to the consideration of the case: presiding judge Inna Kalugina, judges Oleg Pavlishin, Andrey Nikiforov, Daniila Chernenkaya and Igor Panaid.
It is interesting that in the same proceedings, the VAKS appeal had previously collected UAH 35 million in bail from Alperin for violation of the duties imposed by the court. Then it means that the case was under the jurisdiction of VAKS, but now it’s not? And Alperin’s complaint about the recovered 35 million UAH of bail is under consideration at the ECHR. What a good gift the VAKS judges can give to his lawyers if they decide that the case is not within the jurisdiction of Anticorsud.
Also recently, the VAKS transferred more than UAH 400 million to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which were arrested as part of investigations into corruption at customs, including in the Alperin case. With this money it was possible to purchase war bonds.
How then could the Anticorsud make these decisions, if the case is allegedly not within its jurisdiction? If we are guided by the logic of the judges of the first instance, then now the state must return all these millions to Alperina and co. I wonder how the refund will be made. Maybe from the VAKS budget?
Let us dwell separately on how, in the course of the pre-trial investigation, there have already been cases of leaking information about the case. In particular, Alperin’s correspondence with the prosecutor of the Kyiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office Sergey Krasnozhon. The latter provided Alperin with secret information about the planned searches, arrests and other investigative actions in the case.
And there was also an unsuccessful attempt to bribe NABU detectives, undertaken precisely in order to get out of the radar of the new anti-corruption bodies.
So, in November 2017, one of the defendants in the case offered, through an intermediary, the head of detectives Andrey Kaluzhinskiy $800,000 to change his legal qualification. The consequence of this should be a change in jurisdiction and the transfer of the case to the Odessa police, where it could be successfully “closed”.
It was not possible to resolve the issue with NABU and the bribe givers were detained. Now the bribery case is being dragged out in the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv. Maybe it is there that they want to give the “Alperin case”?
This is not the first surprising decision of judges Kravchuk, Kruk and Belous. Previously, they have already tried groundlessly to merge the multimillion-dollar NABU / SAPO cases, but the appeal prevented them.
We hope it will be the same this time.”
Skeleton.Info
DOSSIER: Vadim Alperin. “King” of Odessa smuggling
