Марія Бровінська That's Life 19 September 2026, 14:23

The investigation became interested in software on the Foxtrot network, for which they allegedly overpaid 22 times. The court allowed the seizure of contracts, correspondence, and copies of the source code

The Pechersky District Court of Kyiv has allowed investigators to obtain documents and electronic information from an individual entrepreneur who appears in criminal proceedings regarding the operations of companies related to the Foxtrot retail chain. The investigation is, in particular, verifying the purchase and subsequent sale of software products, their origin, and the movement of funds under these operations.

The case involves millions for software

The investigation is paying special attention to the operations of the individual entrepreneur, from whom they now want to obtain documents. According to the materials of the criminal proceedings, from November 2021 to January 2023, the entrepreneur transferred more than UAH 6.25 million to the LLC for software products in electronic form under the contract dated October 19, 2021.

At the same time, as stated in the ruling, the amount of money that another related company paid to the individual entrepreneur for this software product was more than 22 times higher than the costs established by the investigation for its acquisition. The investigation notes that it has not established another documented source of origin of the software product comparable to that sold to the related company. Therefore, law enforcement officers want to check the entire chain of its creation, acquisition, transfer, pricing and use.

After receiving the funds, according to the investigation, they partially moved on. In particular, over 78 million UAH was transferred as repayable financial assistance to two individuals — 24 million UAH and 54 million UAH. Another over 27 million UAH, according to the case materials, was sent to one company as repayable financial assistance, over 16 million UAH to another company to replenish the authorized capital. Another over 5 million UAH, according to the investigation, went to pay for the purchase and sale agreement for a share in the authorized capital of another company. In addition, over 9 million UAH was transferred to a deposit account. About 7 million UAH of it, as stated in the resolution, was later withdrawn in cash through the bank’s cash desk by authorized persons.

Investigators will have access to the source code

The court granted the investigator’s request and granted law enforcement officers temporary access to a large array of documents and electronic information. In particular, these include contracts for the supply of software products, technical specifications, specifications, certificates of work performed, invoices, and payment documents.

Separately, the investigation wants to obtain documents about the origin of the software — contracts with developers, programmers, architects, and testers, documents on the transfer of intellectual property rights and payments.

The most revealing part of the ruling for IT concerns technical documentation and electronic information about software products. Investigators were granted permission to access source code, repositories, version control systems, development management systems, as well as information about users, authors of changes, dates of changes and version history. It also concerns architectural diagrams, UML diagrams, instructions for administrators and users, test results and acceptance protocols.

Separately, the court allowed to obtain electronic correspondence with representatives of companies and individuals — but only in the part related to the approval of contracts, pricing, creation, purchase, transfer, acceptance, payment and use of software products. Investigators will also have access to data on the actual use of software: information on installation, deployment and configuration, server logs, access logs, accounts, usage statistics and technical support requests. At the same time, the court separately noted that electronic information should be copied without removing the information and computer systems themselves. If possible, the original format and structure of the data, metadata, information on the creation and modification of files, users and the history of changes should be preserved.

What exactly is the investigation checking?

The criminal proceedings were opened on April 13, 2022. It investigates possible offenses under a number of articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, in particular, regarding misappropriation or embezzlement of property, legalization of property, abuse of authority, official forgery, tax evasion, and bankruptcy.

At the same time, the current resolution concerns the receipt of documents and electronic data necessary to verify business transactions with software products and the subsequent flow of funds.

The court concluded that these documents are of essential importance for the criminal proceedings, and it is impossible to obtain the relevant information in any other way. The decision is valid for two months. It entered into force from the moment of its announcement and is not subject to appeal.

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