The Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of Prosecutors has decided to dismiss the prosecutor of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol Mykhailo Horoshchenko after a high-profile corruption scandal. The official was detained on May 27, 2025 in Kyiv near the Sunset Terrace restaurant, immediately after he received $10,000 from an intermediary under the control of the SBU and the State Bureau of Investigation.
According to the investigation, Horoshchenko demanded money, promising to influence the course of the criminal proceedings through his "connections" in the Kyiv region prosecutor's office. This included a promise to reclassify the suspicion from a serious article about receiving a bribe to fraud and to ensure the conclusion of a plea agreement without actual imprisonment. Although Horoshchenko himself had no authority in this case, he assured that he was able to "solve" the issue for a financial reward. After receiving the money, he kept some for himself and returned the rest to the intermediary.
The conversations about the amount and threats of a "real term" lasted for several weeks before the arrest. According to law enforcement, the prosecutor was aware of the risk of documentation and even advised his interlocutors to be "more secretive", but continued to demand money. His explanation that the money was allegedly compensation for damage to his wife's car after a road accident was called fabricated by the commission - no confirmation of such an accident was provided.
After reporting the suspicion, the prosecutor's actions were classified as fraud on a particularly large scale. The KDKP, having reviewed the disciplinary materials, concluded that Goroshchenko's behavior grossly violated the standards of integrity and was incompatible with his tenure in the prosecutor's office. Even his more than twenty years of experience, which is usually considered a mitigating circumstance, did not influence the decision.
The Commission finally approved the dismissal and sent it to the Prosecutor General for execution. From now on, Mykhailo Horoshchenko is officially deprived of his position and status as a prosecutor.
