The judicial proceedings in the high-profile case of Dmytro Sennichenko, the former head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, could cost the state budget astronomical sums. According to preliminary calculations by defense attorneys, basic procedural expenses have already reached nearly 242 million hryvnias, and with additional costs and the protracted nature of the process, the total figure risks growing to half a billion hryvnias.
These figures were announced during a preparatory hearing of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) in case No. 991/11192/26, and were also presented in an analytical report prepared by attorney Andriy Tsyhankov, who represents one of the defendants, Pavlo Prysiazhniuk. The calculation covers a significant period starting from March 11, 2020, when the first criminal proceeding was opened, up to September 2026, spanning approximately 78 months of continuous work by investigative and judicial authorities.
Scale of the Investigation and Procedural Costs
According to defense materials, 106 officials were involved at various stages in investigating the large-scale episodes related to the Odesa Port-Side Plant (OPZ) and the United Mining and Chemical Company (OGHC). These included 31 prosecutors, 46 detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), and 29 investigators from the National Police and the tax service. The vast volumes of documentation, comprising 651 volumes and about 22 terabytes of digital data, required colossal expenses solely for the departmental duplication of materials, estimated at approximately 18 million pages.
The defense emphasizes that the figures provided are a scenario model rather than final budget reports, but they clearly demonstrate a disproportion in costs. For instance, each additional month of active court review adds about 2.2–2.5 million hryvnias to the expenses. For comparison, the civil claim by OGHC regarding the episode with Belanto trade s.r.o. amounts to 118.3 million hryvnias in lost revenue, meaning the state resources spent directly on the trial already exceed the disputed damages by roughly double.
Contradictory Data
While the defense insists on the economic inappropriateness of such large-scale and expensive investigative actions and claims the criminal prosecution is politically motivated, the prosecution's position differs radically. Representatives of NABU and the SAP insist on the existence of a structured criminal organization that inflicted damages exceeding 700 million hryvnias on state enterprises. The prosecution argues that all procedural steps were strictly justified by the severity and complexity of the economic crimes, and that the defendants attempted to artificially protract the process.
Case Context and Next Steps
The criminal proceedings surrounding large-scale embezzlement at state enterprises date back to 2023, when law enforcement officers exposed a scheme to misappropriate funds from OPZ and OGHC. Dmytro Sennichenko was declared internationally wanted in April 2023, and in May 2024, the HACC chose an in-absentia arrest as a preventive measure. The defense intends to seek detailed disclosure of financial documents and has already filed a corresponding statement with the State Bureau of Investigation to check for possible offenses by NABU and SAP employees.
