Artificial evidence was created: NABU reported the suspicion to the experts of the National Institute of Criminal Investigation and Investigation (KNIICE)
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NABU and SAPO reported the suspicion to forensic experts of the Kyiv Research Institute of Forensic Expertise (KRIFE). According to the investigation, they prepared knowingly false conclusions regarding the value of an elite apartment purchased by the wife of a high-ranking official of the Security Service of Ukraine. NABU did not name the official in whose interests, according to the investigation, evidence could have been falsified. At the same time, the circumstances of the case point to the former head of the SBU cybersecurity department, Ilya Vityuk.
This was reported by NABU.
According to the anti-corruption bureau, in December 2023, the wife of a then-current SBU official purchased an apartment for UAH 21.6 million. However, the purchase and sale agreement intentionally stated the value of the property at UAH 12.8 million.
In April of the following year, the lawyer representing the couple initiated an appraisal and construction examination at the KNIISE. Already in May, the expert commission prepared a conclusion in which it estimated the market value of the apartment at UAH 12.3 million. As noted in the NABU, this way the value of the property was understated by UAH 9.3 million.
“To achieve this result, the experts deliberately used irrelevant real estate objects for comparison. Later, this document was used by the defense as evidence in the NACP, NABU, and the court,” the Bureau reported.
The anti-corruption agency also said that as part of the investigation into the purchase of the apartment, NABU had appointed its own commission expertise. On November 11, 2024, the Bureau withdrew it and asked to return the materials without execution. However, the KNIISE experts ignored this requirement and continued the investigation.
According to NABU, during the evaluation, experts agreed to limit the cost of objects for comparison to $2,500–2,600 per square meter instead of the market price of $3,000. At the same time, they deliberately chose the cheapest offers, starting from $1,550 per square meter, and did not take into account other available analogues.
The Bureau also drew attention to the date of the experts’ conclusion. The document was dated November 8, 2024 — before NABU withdrew the expertise. However, according to the investigation, it was actually signed only in December. At the same time, the detectives received a copy of the document not from the KNIISE, but from the suspect’s lawyer, Ilya Vityuk.
“We note that such manipulations with evidence would be impossible if the expert institution at NABU functioned. The Bureau’s leadership has been emphasizing the critical need to create an independent expert institution for several years in a row. This would eliminate corruption risks, make external pressure on experts impossible, and significantly increase the effectiveness of pre-trial investigations in cases of top corruption,” NABU emphasized.
What is known about the case of Ilya Vityuk
Ilya Vityuk’s case on suspicion of illegal enrichment and declaring false information was transferred to court in early September 2026. He was charged in the fall of 2025.
The investigation began after, in early April 2024, journalists from “Slidstva.Info” published material about the purchase by Vityuk’s wife Yulia of an apartment in an elite residential complex in the capital’s Pechersk district in December 2023. The investigation stated that she allegedly earned the money to purchase housing during the full-scale war.
After the publication of the material, Ilya Vityuk was suspended from his duties and sent to the front. Later, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on his dismissal.
NABU emphasizes that manipulation of expert opinions can create risks for the investigation of top corruption cases, in particular due to the possibility of using dubious assessments as evidence in criminal proceedings. The Bureau believes that the creation of an independent expert institution would help reduce the risk of external pressure on experts and increase the efficiency of investigations.
It was previously reported that the Scientific Research Center for Forensic Expertise in the Field of Information Technologies and Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine provided a response regarding the status of experts who conducted an examination within the framework of the investigation into the fifth President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, in the case of the Kharkiv Agreements and the enshrining in the Constitution of Ukraine of the intention to join the EU and NATO.
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