Key facts
- NABU charged former Supreme Court deputy head Bohdan Lvov with money laundering on Sept. 23.
- Lvov allegedly used a subordinate and her mother to hide assets worth Hr 26 million ($580,000).
- Lvov was fired in 2022 for concealed Russian citizenship.
- Lvov denied the allegations.
- The European Union has demanded reform of the Supreme Court due to corruption scandals.
Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) on September 23 charged Bohdan Lvov, the former deputy head of the Supreme Court, with money laundering. Lvov, one of Ukraine's most controversial judges, was dismissed from the Supreme Court in 2022 after it was revealed he held concealed Russian citizenship. The controversy surrounding Lvov's nationality underscored the ongoing need for reforms within the Supreme Court, which has been plagued by corruption and other scandals for years.
The NABU did not name Lvov directly in its announcement, instead referring to a former head of the Supreme Court's cassation division. Lvov held this position, as well as deputy head of the Supreme Court, from 2017 to 2022. A law enforcement source confirmed to The Kyiv Independent that the NABU's statement pertained to Lvov. According to the NABU, Lvov acquired assets totaling approximately Hr 26 million ($580,000) between 2021 and 2022, including property such as a house, two apartments, and four plots of land.
The bureau also charged a former subordinate of Lvov and her mother. The NABU stated that Lvov allegedly involved his subordinate, who acted as his secretary, in a scheme to hide the illicit origin of funds and the true ownership of assets. The property was reportedly registered in the mother's name to conceal evidence of the alleged crime and launder the assets.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Schemes investigation project reported in 2022 that Lvov obtained Russian citizenship in 1999 and possessed a valid Russian passport, citing official Russian data. Lvov has denied these allegations. Subsequently, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confirmed Lvov's Russian citizenship.
In October 2022, Vsevolod Kniazev, then head of the Supreme Court, dismissed Lvov due to a constitutional prohibition against judges holding foreign citizenship. Previously, in 2017, the Public Integrity Council, a judicial watchdog, had concluded that Lvov did not meet ethical and integrity standards and was unfit for a Supreme Court position, but this conclusion was disregarded by judicial authorities.
Lvov has also been under investigation for allegedly facilitating a member of the High Council of Justice in extorting a $500,000 bribe for favorable court rulings. He is also being investigated as an alleged accomplice in a large corruption scheme involving ex-High Commercial Court Chairman Viktor Tatkov and his deputy Artur Yemelyanov, though Lvov has not yet been charged in these specific cases.
The European Union has called for reforms of the Supreme Court, citing its ongoing corruption scandals, and has made it a condition for Ukraine's EU accession. The Ukrainian authorities have yet to implement these reforms. When the current Supreme Court was established in 2017, the Public Integrity Council found that 22.2% of its judges did not meet integrity and ethics standards, with an additional 28.8% potentially having violated them. These findings were also ignored by the authorities.
In a separate development, Vsevolod Kniazev, the former head of the Supreme Court, was sentenced to five years in prison for bribery in June 2026. Investigators alleged that Kniazev instructed subordinates to distribute money to 13 Supreme Court judges. In May 2026, the NABU charged three current and one former Supreme Court judge with receiving bribes in connection with the same case.