Key facts
- Lawmaker Oleksandr Yurchenko was sentenced to nine years in prison for bribery and abuse of influence.
- The court ordered the confiscation of Yurchenko's assets and barred him from holding public office for three years.
- Yurchenko was accused of soliciting bribes in a 2020 investigation by Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau.
- Yurchenko allegedly asked for $13,000 for himself and $200,000 to bribe other lawmakers.
- Then-Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova authorized bribery charges against Yurchenko on Sept. 17, 2020.
Ukraine's High Anti-Corruption Court on September 11, 2026, sentenced lawmaker Oleksandr Yurchenko to nine years in prison for bribery and abuse of influence. The court also ordered the confiscation of his assets and barred him from holding certain public offices for three years. Yurchenko, who was a member of President Volodymyr Zelensky's Servant of the People parliamentary group at the time, was accused by Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) in 2020 of soliciting bribes. This case was one of the first high-profile corruption investigations involving allies of President Zelensky, occurring a year after his party's significant electoral victories in 2019. The lawmaker was exposed through a sting operation in August 2020, where he allegedly solicited bribes from an undercover NABU detective via an intermediary. According to the investigation, Yurchenko asked for $13,000 for himself to propose legislative amendments and an additional $200,000 to bribe other lawmakers. Following the scandal, Yurchenko left Zelensky's parliamentary group. President Zelensky publicly stated that officials taking bribes would face imprisonment. The case also drew attention to then-Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, who initially blocked bribery charges against Yurchenko but later authorized them on September 17, 2020, under public pressure.