By Dan Peleschuk
Nov 4 (Reuters) – Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators said on Wednesday they believed senior security and law enforcement officials were involved in covering up a major fraud scheme at the centre of an expanding new probe.
Top employees of Ukraine’s SBU security service, the National Police and the Prosecutor General’s Office had taken bribes to shield a call centre scamming unwitting victims, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said.
The probe, unveiled in September, forced the resignation of former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko after authorities accused a subordinate of helping run the ring, which investigators say targeted both Ukrainians and foreigners. Kravchenko was not charged with a crime.
Tackling high-level corruption is key to Ukraine’s efforts to join the European Union and to continue receiving badly needed financial aid from donors to help it fend off Russia’s invasion, now in its fifth year.
NABU and its sister agency, the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosectuor’s Office (SAPO), have targeted top officials in cases that have roiled the political establishment.
The SBU confirmed in a statement that investigators were searching some of its employees and said it was cooperating with the probe.
The police said it had suspended the officers under investigation, while warning against “premature conclusions”. The Prosecutor General’s office said it was ready to cooperate, but that it was unaware of any illegal activities by the employees implicated by the NABU.
AUTHORITIES CONCLUDE ANOTHER MAJOR PROBE
Separately on Wednesday, the NABU said it had completed its investigation into its highest-profile wartime case – an alleged money-laundering scheme in the country’s energy sector.
The case had ensnared a former deputy prime minister and energy minister, as well as forcing out President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s former chief of staff. All have denied wrongdoing.
NABU said it was still trying to recover the proceeds of laundered kickbacks which organisers had solicited from contractors of state energy enterprises, including atomic agency Energoatom.
The total amount laundered exceeded $111 million and 12 million euros, NABU added.
Ukraine ranked 104th out of 182 countries in Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index, under which the lowest ranked country is perceived as the most corrupt.
(Additional reporting by Lina Golovnya; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Philippa Fletcher)
