Searches at the home of scandalous judge Volodymyr Melnyk: what is known

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) conducted searches in courts and at the offices of representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office on Friday in connection with the Ivanyushchenko case.

This was reported by sources of “Ukrainian Truth” .

According to journalists, the investigative actions are related to the case of Viktor Yanukovych’s former associate, former deputy from the Party of Regions Yuriy Ivanyushchenko.

In particular, searches were conducted at the Kyiv Court of Appeal, at the residence of Judge Volodymyr Melnyk. The investigative actions may be related to the closure of Ivanyushchenko’s case and the lifting of arrests on his accounts abroad.

Ivanyushchenko is suspected of embezzlement of state funds, raider seizures, and legalization of big business through shadowy schemes. After the Revolution of Dignity, Ivanyushchenko fled Ukraine, and several times attempts were made to illegally remove hundreds of millions of hryvnias from his accounts.

In 2019, he was strangely removed from the wanted list, but later the Prosecutor General’s Office canceled the closure of the case and put him on the wanted list again. In 2025, he was suspected in absentia of legalizing 18 hectares of state land worth over UAH 160 million.

By the way, Volodymyr Melnyk is the same judge who made the scandalous decision in the case of a million dollars in Sanahunt boxes, reminds Avtomaidan.

At that time, the Italian woman tried to take out of Ukraine more than 783 thousand dollars and 230 thousand euros, packed in shoe boxes. She assured that she thought that there were just “notebooks”. Despite the obvious concealment of the currency, Judge Melnyk decided that the woman “did not have time to complete the offense”, overturned the decision of the court of first instance on the confiscation of the currency and ordered to return all the funds to her.

Investigative journalists from the Bigus.Info project released a video of Judge Volodymyr Melnyk’s shocking explanation regarding the decision to return currency that was illegally transported across the border.

Judge Melnyk also ” distinguished himself ” during the consideration of the case of the former bodyguard of the fifth President, Vadym Chuchkovsky, who was held in a pre-trial detention center for the purpose of giving false testimony against Poroshenko with an alternative bail of UAH 400 million.

On April 7, 2025, Melnyk considered an appeal in the Chuchkovsky case against the decision of the Pechersk District Court to choose a preventive measure – detention with a bail of 400 million hryvnias.

“During the consideration of the case, the defense pointed to numerous violations. The prosecutor of the Prosecutor General’s Office did not appear without good reason, but Melnyk, as the presiding judge, did not take any response measures provided for by law. Chuchkovsky was not brought to court, which made it impossible for him to participate in the trial,” said Chuchkovsky’s lawyer Larisa Kryvoruchko.

According to her, instead, the judge allowed himself to limit the rights of the defense, in particular by ignoring their arguments about the political nature of the case and the absence of elements of a crime.

“Melnyk established his own rules of procedure, departing from the norms of the Criminal Procedure Code. For example, he did not respond to the prosecutor’s violation, thereby violating the principle of equality of arms. The defense also claimed that the only “evidence” against Chuchkovsky was a edited video received from the Russian Federation in March 2025, which casts doubt on its legality and objectivity. In addition, according to the lawyer, the suspect was tortured – a fact that Melnyk ignored,” the defense attorney said.

At the same time, she added that this case became another example of how, according to critics, Volodymyr Melnyk demonstrates bias and selectivity in applying the law.

“His actions are perceived as an attempt to legitimize the dubious decision of the Pechersk court, despite clear violations of the Constitution and the Code of Criminal Procedure. Whether this was a manifestation of judicial bias or pressure from outside remains an open question,” Kryvoruchko said.

Also follow “Pryamim” on Facebook , X , Telegram , and Instagram.