On Thursday, July 4, 2024, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau announced the suspicion of Nazar Sheptytskyi in criminal proceedings related to the trade of management positions in the State Customs Service. According to the investigation, Sheptytskyi conspired together with several influential persons to give and receive bribes for the appointment of "necessary" candidates for key positions. It was planned that they would together receive illegal profits from the controlled division of customs. This information was published by Bihus.Info, referring to the text of the suspicion, which was available to the editors.
Sheptytskyi was charged with attempted bribery (Articles 15, 27 and 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). According to the investigation, in the summer of 2023, Sheptytskyi decided to put his people in high positions in the customs office by bribing the acting head of the State Customs Service. For this, he engaged Ruslan Cherkaskyi, the former deputy head of customs, who was dismissed in 2023 due to corruption scandals, as a mediator. Cherkasky was supposed to submit a proposal for a bribe for positions in the western regions, in particular for a million dollars for the leadership of Lviv Customs.
According to detectives, Sheptytskyi, together with accomplice Oleg Gatalyak, planned to finance these appointments and identify candidates suitable for various positions. Gatalyak was also supposed to control and distribute bribes in the future controlled unit of the customs, for example, planning to receive about 2 million dollars every month from the Volyn customs.
Sheptytsky met with Cherkasky several times to discuss the plan, involving Gatalyak in the conversations. During these meetings, not only the cost of positions at various customs departments, but also the details of the payment scheme were discussed. For example, the sum of half a million dollars was discussed for the appointment of the head of the Lviv customs office, and 200,000 dollars for Chernivtsi. According to the content of the conversations, this was the "first payment" for the purpose itself, after which a regular monthly payment from a share of the illegal profits was planned.
According to the text of the suspicion, Sheptytskyi's plan failed due to circumstances beyond his control. However, in the list of "suitable" candidates that Cherkasky handed over to the head of the State Customs Service for consideration, the candidacy of Yury Gerasymov, the former head of the Kharkiv Customs Service, who was actually appointed as the head of the Chernivtsi Customs Service in January 2024, was personally noted.
We will remind you that Nazar Sheptytskyi is the stepson of Oleksandr Ruvin, the head of KNDISE - the largest and most influential forensic institute in Ukraine. Both were the heroes of the Bihus.Info investigation in 2021, when journalists revealed the dubious origin of the Ruvin family fortune in the context of conflicts of interest and scandalous examinations.
Regarding Nazar Sheptytskyi, it was established that he owned a significant amount of valuable real estate and luxury cars, which did not correspond to his official income. For example, among them was a Range Rover worth about 3.5 million hryvnias, an apartment in the "French Quarter" residential complex for about $150,000, as well as an apartment in the "Lipska Vezh" residential complex in the government quarter of Kyiv, the rent of which cost $8,000 per month. For several years, the presence of Sheptytsky was also observed in cars registered to other persons who had powers of attorney for his stepson, Oleksandr Ruvin. These cars included a Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG, two Toyota Land Cruiser 200s and an Aston Martin DB9. The total estimated cost of these cars was approximately 9 million hryvnias.
