Supreme Court of Ukraine Chief Arrested in $2.7 Million Transplant Investigation

Photo of author

By Webdesk


Ukraine, while at war with Russia, reels from ‘biggest case ever’ involving the judiciary.

Ukrainian law enforcement officers have arrested the head of the country’s Supreme Court in a $2.7 million bribery investigation as Kyiv pursues anti-bribery measures needed for closer integration with the European Union.

“The head of the Supreme Court has been detained,” Oleksandr Omelchenko, a prosecutor with Ukraine’s Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), told reporters in Kiev.

Omelchenko said two people, including court chief Vsevolod Kniaziev, had been detained as part of the investigation. He refused to identify the second person.

“This is the biggest case ever” involving the judiciary, said the head of Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), Semen Kryvonos.

Kryvonos likened a group of Supreme Court judges involved in the investigation to a “criminal group”.

Late Monday, the NABU and SAPO press services shared a photo of stacks of dollars neatly lined up in a bank — allegedly money found by detectives.

Omelchenko said no “formal notice of suspension” had yet been served to the unnamed person.

“You see that through real cases, real actions, we show what our priority is: it’s top corruption, it’s top level criminal organization,” NABU’s Kryvonos told reporters.

Anti-corruption officials say Ukrainian billionaire Kostiantyn Zhevago offered the bribe to court officials, with a law firm acting as an intermediary.

Zhevago reportedly transferred $2.7 million to the lawyers, of which $1.8 million was to be paid to the Supreme Court justices, and $900,000 to lawyers for their “services as intermediaries,” Reuters reported.

The anti-corruption officials said Zhevago had hoped to bribe the court to pass a ruling that would allow him to keep the shares of a mining company at the center of a dispute with former shareholders.

Zhevago, a former member of the Ukrainian parliament and one of the richest men in the country, is currently in France and Kiev is trying to secure his extradition.

He was detained in France in December on suspicion of money laundering and embezzlement in connection with his home banking.

Piles of cash prepared by Ukrainian prosecutors.
Money found by National Anti-Corruption Bureau detectives during investigative actions in a corruption case involving Supreme Court judges is pictured in an unknown location in Ukraine in this handout photo [National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine via Reuters]

Late Monday, the Supreme Court announced an emergency meeting.

Corruption has long plagued Ukraine.

Earlier this year, Ukrainian authorities raided the home of the former interior minister and fired several senior government officials accused of bribery.

Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov was also recently accused of buying food for soldiers at exorbitant prices.

At the time, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been keen to tackle corruption in the country since taking office, had said: “I want this to be clear: there will be no return to what was before.”

For the Ukrainian leader, ensuring that corruption is eradicated is critical so that Kyiv can meaningfully apply for EU and NATO membership.

In an earlier interview, Lukas Andriukaitis, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, told Al Jazeera that Kyiv’s crackdown on corruption was at the top of Zelenskyy’s agenda regarding Ukraine’s future EU membership .

“As EU negotiations gain momentum along with financial support from the West, Ukraine needs to show that corruption will not be tolerated, even if they are high-ranking officials in Ukraine,” he said.



Source link

Share via
Copy link