Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court has handed down an enormous fine to a former lawmaker who is currently the subject of a criminal investigation.
On April 3, the court penalized Maksym Mykytas Hr 80 million ($2.8 million) for interacting with a witness in his case. Olesya Chemerys, the court’s press secretary, told the Kyiv Post that Mykytas, who is charged with fraud, communicated with the witness after the court expressly forbade him to do so.
His bail was also increased from Hr 5.5 million to Hr 100 million. Mykytas couldn’t be reached for comment.
Back in October, Mykytas, a former lawmaker and developer, was charged by the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) with illegally seizing property meant for servicepeople of Ukraine’s National Guard.
According to the prosecution, in 2016, Mykytas colluded with Yuriy Alerov, back then the head of the National Guard, to decrease the payback he owed for using its land to build an apartment complex. In exchange for the land, Mykytas was supposed to give the National Guard 50 apartments in the complex in downtown Kyiv, but swapped it for 65 apartments in Kyiv’s suburbs at a price difference of over Hr 81 million ($3.3 million).
According to the prosecution, the scheme was carried out through Ukrbud Development, a company owned by Mykytas and named after the state-owned construction company he headed between 2010 and 2016.
In May 2019, Alerov and Oleg Maiboroda, the head of Ukrbud Development, were arrested on charges of embezzlement. Mykytas was arrested in October, but was later released on Hr 5.5 million ($230,000) bail despite the prosecution’s demand that bail be set at $12.5 million.
Mykytas is a well-known developer who, until recently, enjoyed lucrative state procurement contracts, parliamentary immunity from prosecution and a close relationship with Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
In September 2017, Schemes, the investigative unit of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, caught Klitschko traveling on a private jet with Mykytas. Klitschko later claimed that he ran into Mykytas on the streets of Naples while on vacation and that the lawmaker offered him a flight back to Kyiv. Klitschko said that he paid his share for the flight.
Mykytas also represented Klitschko’s party in the Kyiv City Council between 2014 and 2016. In 2016, Mykytas was elected to parliament, where he joined the 17-member People’s Will group.
At the same time, he didn’t lose his connection to Kyiv. In 2018, Mykytas won a bid to build a bridge in the Shuliavka neighborhood after the previous bridge, which was in need of reconstruction, crumbled.
Schemes reported that a company linked to Mykytas won the tender to construct the new bridge for Hr 600 million ($23 million). However, only two companies took part in the competition, and both were linked to the lawmaker.
These two companies were later fined Hr 150 million ($5.5 million) by Ukraine’s Anti-Monopoly Committee for collusion in another tender to reconstruct a hospital in Kyiv.
In January, detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau removed Mykytas from a plane bound for London. He was attempting to leave the country while on bail.
