Suspected utility worker loses appeal and remains in jail until he posts bail of ₴5m

The Mykolaiv Court of Appeal upheld the preventive measure against Serhii Bezdolnyi, a suspect in the corruption case of purchasing 65 street lighting cabinets.

The information was confirmed by Volodymyr Kuznetsov, prosecutor of the Mykolaiv Regional Prosecutor's Office, in a comment to NikVesti.

As you know, on 15 April, the Vitovskyi District Court placed the utility company under arrest with the possibility of bail in the amount of almost 5 million hryvnias.

As a reminder, the measure of restraint for Serhii Bezdolnyi is valid until 14 June, with bail set at 4 million 996 thousand 200 hryvnias. As of today, no one has posted bail for him.

Corruption in the procurement of street lighting for Mykolaiv

On 9 April, it became known that Serhii Bezdolnyi, who works for the municipal enterprise «Self-supporting Construction Mechanisation Section» (hereinafter referred to as the SCMS), and Vasyl Protsyshyn, a businessman from Lviv region, were notified of suspicion of misappropriation of budget funds. He is charged with an offence under Part 4 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He faces a prison sentence of 5 to 8 years. In addition to working for the utility company, Serhii Bezdolnyi is the brother of Dmytro Bezdolnyi, Director of the Housing and Communal Services Department of Mykolaiv City Council.

According to law enforcement officers, during the purchase of 65 street lighting control cabinets worth more than 5.3 million hryvnias, the budget of Mykolaiv lost almost 600,000 hryvnias due to the so-called «kickbacks» — 13% of the amount excluding VAT.

The director of Mykolaiv's Department of Housing and Communal Services, Dmytro Bezdolnyi, previously told NikVesti that he was considering resigning from his post for the duration of the investigation due to the suspicion served on his relative. It is worth noting that the wife of the director of Mykolaiv's Housing and Utilities Department also works for the utility company where his brother is suspected of corruption.

The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, promised to cooperate with the investigation in the case of corruption in street lighting.

On 15 April, the Vitovskyi District Court of Mykolaiv imposed a pre-trial restraint on suspected corrupt utility worker Serhii Bezdolnyi in the form of arrest with the possibility of bail in the amount of over 4.9 million hryvnias. As it turned out during the hearing, the Department of Internal Financial Control, Supervision and Anti-Corruption of Mykolaiv approved a tender for the purchase of 65 street lighting cabinets at an inflated price in September 2024.

The court also ruled to compulsorily bring the suspect Vasyl Protsyshyn to the court hearing. However, Protsyshyn did not appear at the hearing on 22 April. The court learned that his whereabouts are currently unknown, but he has not crossed the state border.

As of the end of April, the suspected businessman Vasyl Protsyshyn remained a fugitive from the investigation.

NikVesti previously reported on new evidence in the case — surveillance video captured the moment of transferring funds to an official of the municipal enterprise «Self-supporting Construction Mechanisation Section» (SCMS).

Read also: «Everyone should be happy in the New Year». The court heard dialogues between the utility company and a Lviv businessman in the Bezdolnyi case