Ukraine sends ex-SBU cybersecurity chief's illicit enrichment case to court
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Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) have sent to court a case against a former head of the Security Service of Ukraine’s (SBU) Cybersecurity Department. He is accused of illicit enrichment and filing false information in an asset declaration, NABU said on Sept. 2.
Law enforcement officials did not name the defendant, but according to media, the case concerns Illia Vitiuk.
Investigators allege that in December 2023, the official purchased an apartment worth Hr 21.6 million ($522,000) and registered it in the name of a family member. The purchase agreement, however, listed the property’s value as Hr 12.8 million ($310,000).
To explain the source of the funds, the family member claimed to have provided legal and consulting services beginning in February 2022.
NABU said that money had indeed been transferred to the family member’s sole-proprietor accounts purportedly as payment for legal and consulting services. The funds, however, came from a person whom NABU and SAPO have accused of embezzling money from state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia, as well as from companies controlled by that person.
According to NABU, evidence gathered by investigators indicates that the services were not actually provided and that the companies involved showed signs of being fictitious. The bureau also said the official had failed to provide evidence of the lawful origin of another Hr 8.8 million ($213,000) spent on the apartment.
Vitiuk was charged in September 2025 under provisions of Ukraine’s Criminal Code covering illicit enrichment and the declaration of false information. The High Anti-Corruption Court later set bail at Hr 9 million ($201,700), which he posted.
The case stems from scrutiny that began after Slidstvo.Info published an investigation in April 2024 into real estate acquired by Vitiuk’s family.
The outlet reported that Vitiuk’s wife, Yuliia, had purchased a 195-square-meter apartment in a premium residential complex in Kyiv’s Pechersk district in December 2023. The property had an estimated market value of Hr 21.6 million. According to the investigation, his wife said the money had been earned through legal and consulting work after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Vitiuk was suspended from his duties following the publication of the investigation and was sent to serve at the front. President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed him from his post on May 1, 2024.
Slidstvo.Info later said that Yevhenii Shulhat, the journalist who led the investigation, was targeted by enlistment officers in retaliation for his reporting. According to the outlet, the officers were accompanied by an SBU employee from Vitiuk’s department.
When NABU and SAPO announced the charges against Vitiuk in September 2025, the SBU rejected the allegations and described the case as “an act of revenge” following the detention of several NABU employees earlier that year.
The SBU also claimed that investigators had failed to provide convincing evidence of illicit enrichment or false declarations and had disregarded expert assessments that, according to the agency, challenged allegations that the property had been undervalued.
