Former investigator of the Holosiivskyi Police Department, and now deputy head of security at Defendo LLC, Ihor Musiyuk, was found guilty of losing seized evidence worth over 1 million hryvnias. This is stated in the verdict of the local court of Kyiv under Part 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Evidence seizure incident
In 2017, the police launched an investigation into possible abuse of power by State Aviation Service officials. During a search in November 2018, investigator Musiyuk seized a laptop and a significant amount of cash: 26.6 thousand US dollars, 16 thousand euros, 175 British pounds, 660 Russian rubles, 30 Swiss francs, 40 Polish zlotys, and 2 thousand hryvnias belonging to the director of a private company.
The judge only seized the laptop, but refused to seize the funds. The same day after the court hearing, Musiyuk invited the company representatives to his office, showed them the money, but refused to return it until he received the full text of the court ruling.
After receiving the full text of the decision, the money was not returned, as the investigator lost it along with the laptop. It turned out that the funds were not deposited in the bank, and the laptop was not transferred to a special room. All the seized items were stored in Musiyuk's office, which was accessible to an unspecified number of people. The total amount of damage was estimated at over 1 million hryvnias.
Trial and verdict
During the court hearing, Musiyuk pleaded not guilty and explained that he was ordered not to hand over the money immediately because they would appeal the refusal to arrest. He allegedly first put the money in a police safe, and then kept it in a closet with clothes in his office. When the money disappeared, the investigator offered the owner to return it in parts, but he refused.
The investigator disappeared from work without explanation, and later it became known that he had gone to Turkey and was wanted. After an inventory of the workplace, it turned out that the money seized during the search had disappeared.
The former investigator was sentenced to five years in prison. Until the sentence becomes final, he was placed under house arrest at night.
Compensation for damages and moral damages
The victim previously filed a lawsuit against the district police department for moral and material damages. In 2023, the appeals court ruled to recover over a million hryvnias from the police. However, to date, the state has not compensated the entrepreneur for the losses.
The court also decided to recover moral damages from the accused. Since the businessman's family planned to purchase a country house to improve their living conditions, but due to the investigator's negligence, this was not possible, the court determined the amount of moral damages at 100 thousand hryvnias.
