How the state recovers stolen assets: civil liability for corruption

Fighting corruption is not only about punishing those responsible, but also about recovering stolen assets. If corruption causes damage to the state, businesses, or citizens, the law provides for civil liability—the obligation to compensate for the damage (including moral damage, Article 23 of the Civil Code of Ukraine).

Such provisions are contained in the Law on Prevention of Corruption (Articles 65-67), the Civil Code of Ukraine (Articles 22, 216, 228, 1166), the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (Article 127), the Law on the National Agency for Corruption Prevention, and the Law on Public Procurement. This refers to situations where officials or public servants illegally dispose of state or municipal property, conclude agreements in their own interests (in conditions of conflict of interest, Article 28 of the Law on Prevention of Corruption) or inflate prices during public procurement. In such cases, the court may order the guilty parties to compensate for the damage caused — in effect, to return to the budget what was spent illegally.

Claims for damages are usually filed as part of criminal proceedings, when the offender’s guilt is established at the same time. However, affected individuals or legal entities have the right to go to court separately if their interests have been violated.

Another consequence of corruption offenses is the invalidation of transactions concluded as a result of such actions. This means that the parties must return to each other everything they received under the contract. Such decisions not only stop illegal agreements from taking effect, but also actually return resources to the state or community.

A telling example comes from the Kharkiv region: following a lawsuit filed by the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NAZK), the court invalidated land lease agreements that a village head had concluded with his son. The court concluded that the official had acted in a real conflict of interest, violating the requirements of anti-corruption legislation.

It is important to note that civil lawsuits can be considered independently of other types of liability—criminal, administrative, or disciplinary. Thus, the state has a real tool not only to punish corrupt officials, but also to restore justice and return what has been lost to citizens.