The Verbytsky Case: Parliament Has Registered a Petition from UA.NEWS Regarding Possible Inaction by NABU and SAPO
Serhiy Ionushas, Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Law Enforcement, was officially presented with a petition from the online media outlet UA.NEWS regarding the need for parliamentary action in the case of former Deputy Prosecutor General Dmytro Verbytskyi.
The editorial board appealed to the relevant Committee with a request to intervene in the situation due to possible delays in the investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) regarding former prosecutor Verbytsky, where, two years after the case was opened, no charges have been filed against anyone and the case has not been referred to court.
The editorial staff of UA.NEWS was informed by the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine about the registration and transmission of the appeal to the Committee’s leadership. The document was officially received and forwarded to the Committee Chair on May 13, 2026, under No. 50447L-1-05.2026/110251.
What the journalists are asking of the relevant Committee
In its appeal, the UA.NEWS editorial team calls on the Committee on Law Enforcement to exercise its oversight functions, as enshrined in the Law of Ukraine “On Committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,” and to take the following responsive measures:
- Send official inquiries and parliamentary requests to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) regarding the reasons for the delay in the pre-trial investigation and the violation of reasonable timeframes.
- Determine the reasons for the failure to announce charges or refer the case to the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC).
- If necessary, send an official parliamentary inquiry on behalf of the Committee Chair to the Director of NABU to investigate possible violations during the conduct of this criminal proceeding.
The essence of the case: two years without procedural decisions
Criminal proceeding No. 52024000000000231 on charges of illicit enrichment (Art. 368-5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) against Verbytskyi and his associates was opened by NABU as early as May 13, 2024. In 2025, in response to a request from UA.NEWS, the Anti-Corruption Bureau stated that the investigation was ongoing and that no one had been notified of any charges.
The passage of time and the lack of visible results in this high-profile case, which had caused a huge public outcry, forced journalists to turn to parliament to verify the impartiality of the investigation and the presence of any possible external influence on the course of the case.
An additional argument in favor of the legitimacy of the anti-corruption agencies’ actions was the decision of the Kyiv District Administrative Court dated February 25, 2026, in Case No. 320/749/25. The court fully sided with the NACP, denying Verbytsky’s appeal against the results of the monitoring of his lifestyle. With this decision, the court effectively confirmed that the NACP had lawfully identified signs of a crime and forwarded a substantiated conclusion to the counterintelligence agencies.
A brief recap
Dmytro Verbytskyi resigned from his position as Deputy Prosecutor General in the summer of 2024 following a series of investigations by the “Schemes” program (Radio Liberty). Journalists documented that the official lived in a luxury estate in the “Konik” residential complex, purchased for one-sixth of its market value, while his girlfriend became the owner of assets worth a million dollars (a cottage, a luxury Porsche, and a beauty salon), which in no way corresponded to her official income. Subsequently, the family was found to have foreign assets, including real estate in Turkey.
Earlier, the editorial staff of the online media outlet UA.NEWS sent a follow-up request to the People’s Deputy and Chair of the Temporary Investigative Commission (TIC) of the Verkhovna Rada on the investigation of possible illegal actions by officials of state authorities, other state bodies, and entities of the public sector of the economy that could have harmed Ukraine’s economic security, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, requesting that he take parliamentary action regarding the investigation into the illicit enrichment of former Deputy Prosecutor General Dmytro Verbytskyi.
Additionally, UA.NEWS received a response from the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine to its inquiry to the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NAZK) regarding the application of enhanced financial monitoring to former Deputy Prosecutor General Dmytro Verbytskyi as a “politically exposed person” (PEP).
