Foreign company to pay EUR 3.4 million to Ukraine: NABU precedent

The state budget will receive more than EUR 3.37 million (approximately UAH 163 million at the NBU exchange rate) from a French company involved in the Ukraine Printing Plant case. This is the first compensation paid by a foreign entity in the history of the anti-corruption authorities, reported National Anti-Corruption Bureau.

The agreement with the company was concluded by the French National Financial Prosecutor's Office on July 8 and approved by a court in Paris on September 3.

The funds have already been blocked on a special account, and the transfer will take place shortly, clarified at the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.

It is known that consumables for equipment containing protective elements produced by the polygraph plant "Ukraine" supplied french company Surys.

The SAPO coordinated actions to protect Ukraine's interests in the French court together with the French National Financial Prosecutor's Office (Parquet national financier).

This is a case of passport fraud, one of the defendants in which is the former Minister of Health of Ukraine Maxim Stepanov, who at that time headed the Ukraine printing plant.

The NABU and SAPO investigation found that the printing plant purchased materials from a French company at inflated prices through an Estonian shell company.

"...the former director of the state-owned enterprise "received an unlawful benefit in the form of copyrights to the designs of security elements of documents," the NABU noted.

Ukraine conducted the investigation jointly with France and Estonia under the auspices of Eurojust. A total of eight people were served with a notice of suspicion in the case.

In December 2024, the Ukrainian side secured a plea agreement with a person close to the former head of the polygraph factory.

"The Supreme Anti-Corruption Court issued a verdict: the accused compensated UAH 14.5 million in damages, paid a donation of UAH 2 million to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and provided critically important incriminating statements against six people. These statements became one of the key pieces of evidence in the French and Estonian court cases," SAP reported.

In Ukraine, the investigation into the polygraph factory case has been completed, the defense side is familiar with the materials.

• In July 2023, Stepanov became a defendant in the of the NABU criminal proceedings about the schemes at the polygraph plant "Ukraine", and in September of the same year he was convicted in absentia arrested.
• In February 2025, the Estonian Public Prosecutor's Office sent an indictment against Estonian entrepreneurs is submitted to the courtinvolved in the laundering of 35 million euros for the former head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Health Stepanov.
• In May Stepanov received a new suspicion from NABU as part of an international investigation into passport fraud.