Ex-head of Special Communications Service Shchyhol arrested with UAH 25 million bail

The High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) took into custody the former head of the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine, Yurii Shchyhol, and set a bail of UAH 25 million as an alternative.

The court made such a decision on Thursday morning, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

On November 23, at the request of the prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SACPO), the investigating judge of the HACC chose a preventive measure against the former head of the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine (Special Communications Service), who, together with other persons, is suspected of embezzling state funds in the amount of over UAH 62 million during the procurement by the Special Communications Service of informatization tools designed to create a system of protected data registers.

The court partially satisfied the request of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NACB) detectives, agreed to by the prosecutor of the SACPO, and imposed a preventive measure on Shchyhol in the form of detention with the alternative of paying UAH 25 million in bail and imposition of procedural obligations in case of bail.

As an alternative, the prosecutors asked for bail in the amount of UAH 50 million.

The term of arrest is until January 21, 2024.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, law enforcement officers found a crypto-wallet in the phone of the former head of the Special Communications Service, Yurii Shchyhol, in which cryptocurrency equivalent to USD 1.5 million is stored.

The Cabinet of Ministers dismissed Yurii Shchyhol from the position of the head of the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection and appointed Dmytro Makovskyi as the acting head of the Special Communications Service.

The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau served the suspicion of embezzlement of state funds in the amount of over UAH 62 million to the head of the State Service for Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine, his deputy and other officials.