Reformer of the week – Artem Krykun-Trush
Artem Krykun-Trush is one of the detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine who has faced pressure from Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytsky and his deputy Volodymyr Kryvenko, according to recordings released by the NABU on April 4. Kholodnytsky has acknowledged that the tapes are authentic, but denied accusations of wrongdoing.
Soloymansky Court Judge Anna Serhiyenko told Krykun-Trush that she cannot authorize search warrants in a graft case against Oleksandr Bohachyov, an aide to Radical Party lawmaker Oleh Lyashko, because Kryvenko had told her not to issue a search warrant because there had been “a mistake.” He did not explain what the mistake was, however.
“Do you believe the detectives or what?” Kholodnytsky told his subordinates in one of the recordings. “Krykun-Trush and that pig Vasylchuk (another NABU detective) are (messing) around with you, and you’re letting them make fools out of you.”
Anti-corruption prosecutor Ihor Harvanko later arrived at the Soloymansky Court and told Krykun-Trush that Kholodnytsky had not authorized the searches, telling Serhiyenko not to authorize the motion.
Reanimation Package of Reform experts believe Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko could use the Kholodnytsky scandal as an excuse to get direct control over the NABU, which will paralyze its work.
Meanwhile, a bill that could potentially block the investigative activities of the NABU was submitted to parliament on March 19 by lawmaker Nina Yuzhanina of the 135-member Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction.
The legislation would create a presidentially controlled National Financial Security Bureau, which will be able to investigate the embezzlement of government funds under Article 191-1, overlapping with high-profile cases of the NABU. As a result, Lutsenko would have powers to take major cases away from the NABU and transfer them to the National Financial Security Bureau, helping corrupt officials escape justice, according to Zlata Simonenko, a law enforcement expert at the Reanimation Package of Reforms.
Anti-reformer of the week – Volodymyr Kryvenko
Volodymyr Kryvenko, a deputy chief anti-corruption prosecutor, has cooperated with Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytsky in his alleged pressure on prosecutors and courts, according to recordings released by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine on April 4. Kholodnytsky has acknowledged that the tapes are authentic but Kholodnytsky and Kryvenko deny accusations of wrongdoing.
Lutsenko said on March 30 he had asked the High Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of Prosecutors to fire Kholodnytsky. The NABU then asked the Prosecutor General’s Office to bring criminal charges against Kholodnytsky.
However, the commission has so far failed to consider the issue, and Lutsenko said on April 16 he saw no evidence of crimes in the recordings, in what Lutsenko’s opponents interpreted as an attempt to clear Kholodnytsky.
On Feb. 7, Kholodnytsky told his deputy Volodymyr Kryvenko not to carry out investigative actions and not to prosecute Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov in a Hr 100 million embezzlement case.
Kholodnytsky also ordered Kryvenko to ask Lyudmila Sheremetyeva, the head of the Solomyansky Court, and her deputy Taras Oksyuta not to consider the search motions in a graft case against Oleksandr Bohachyov, an aide to Radical Party lawmaker Oleh Lyashko. Kryvenko complied with the request.
“Tomorrow I’ll call Oksyuta at 8 a.m… I’ll ask them to reject the motion because it’s not the main seal,” Kryvenko said, according to the recordings.
The NABU said that Kholodnytsky keeps his main seal in a safe as a form of illegal control over his subordinates, although under the law all anti-corruption prosecutors must act independently in their cases.
Subsequently Soloymansky Court Judge Anna Serhiyenko told NABU detective Artem Krykun-Trush that she cannot authorize the search motions because Kryvenko had told her not to issue a search warrant due to an alleged “mistake.” He did not explain what the mistake was.
In November, Kryvenko also backed Kholodnytsky when he transferred a large-scale corruption case at the National Agency for Preventing Corruption from the NABU to the presidentially controlled Security Service of Ukraine, in what critics believed to be an attempt to bury the case.
According to his asset declarations, Kryvenko and his family own a Hr 1 million Mazda car, four apartments, about Hr 315,000 and $31,000 in cash.
