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personally will make all necessary efforts return funds spent repaying depositors in bankrupt and nationalized banks, as well as funds used to recapitalize state-owned banks who suffered losses due to unscrupulous borrowers.”
Former President Petro Poroshenko was named a suspect on November 18 in a criminal case involving the alleged abuse of authority in selecting candidates for the High Justice Council ​during the selection procedure in March-May 2019. The State Bureau of Investigations submitted to the Prosecutor General’s Office its accusations against the former president in the crimes of abuse of authority and public calls for violent change or overthrowing the constitutional order, as well as distributing materials calling for such actions. The bureau also requested that parliament removed political immunity from Poroshenko, who is an MP with the European Solidarity party.
The High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine ruled on November 15 to arrest several state officials in a criminal case involving fraud and bribery​, the ​pravda.com.ua news site reported. Detectives with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau uncovered a scheme in, which the suspects allegedly demanded a bribe of $300K to enable an appointment to a key post in Naftogaz of Ukraine, the state natural gas transit monopoly and producer. Among those arrested were Viktoria Lisnycha, a deputy culture minister, and Svitlana Kondzelia, the President’s Office director of the public information access department. Kondzelia was placed under house arrest, while Lisnycha was arrested for two months under UAH576,300 bail. ​Dmytro Sviatash, a former MP with a Kolomoisky-aligned parliamentary group, was placed on international search on November 16 by the Interior Ministry of Ukraine. In early October, Kyiv prosecutors named Sviatash among several suspects, partners in the AIC group of companies, in a criminal case involving the misappropriation of a UAH1.1bn loan from Ukrsibbank. The criminal charges involve fraud as part of a conspiracy involving large amounts, and submitting fraudulent documents as part of a conspiracy.
An IMF deal is stalled because Fund staff members are not convinced President Zelenskiy will try to recoup the $15bn stolen from banks ​closed during the 2014-2015 financial crisis, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal. Based on interviews in Washington and Kyiv, the Journal writes: “The IMF is holding up the next set of loans until it is convinced Mr. Zelenskiy’s government will aggressively try to recoup an estimated $15bn stolen from more than 100 banks, including PrivatBank, over the past decade.” The principal owner of PrivatBank, Ihor Kolomoisky, was the main media backer of Zelenskiy when he was running for president last spring.
Pavlo Bukin, who ran Ukraine's state-run weapons manufacturing monopoly from February 2018 until he was fired in August 2019, was reportedly served a formal notice of suspicion ​by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) on Nov. 12 for failing to declare income and assets worth millions of hryvnias in 2016. While Bukin entered UkrOboronProm with vows to fight corruption, he was implicated along with Oleh Hladkovsky, then the deputy secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, in a kickback scheme that involved selling altimeters at inflated prices. Hladkovsky was arrested while trying to leave the country in October on separate charges of abuse of office.
Pavlo Bukin, the former general director of the Ukroboronprom
14​ UKRAINE Country Report​ December 201 ​ ​www.intellinews.com