The Supreme Court of Ukraine approved the plea agreement of former State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Oleksiy Takhtai

The Supreme Anti-Corruption Court has approved a plea agreement for former State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Oleksiy Takhtai.

The decision was made on June 22 during a preparatory court session. At the same time, the text of the verdict is classified, and the details of the punishment are not officially disclosed at the moment.

According to information from the case materials, Takhtai was charged with several serious articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, including embezzlement of property in especially large amounts, receiving illegal benefits, and legalization of property obtained by criminal means.

Earlier, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine reported that the former official could be involved in a corruption scheme involving the purchase of video surveillance equipment and access control systems for the buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

According to the investigation, the equipment supplier significantly overestimated its cost, and in return, in 2018–2019, through a controlled public organization, transferred four premium cars to Takhtai with a total value of over 6 million hryvnias.

The investigation believes that as a result of these actions, the state budget suffered losses in the amount of about 16 million hryvnias.

After his dismissal from office, the cars that Takhtai had previously used actually remained in his use due to the execution of a donation agreement.

Oleksiy Takhtai also appeared in a number of high-profile corruption stories during the time of Arsen Avakov’s leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in particular in the so-called “backpack case” and schemes for the sale of confiscated property.