A whistleblowing official at a Ukrainian anti-corruption agency on Nov. 24 published what she claims is smartphone correspondence in which she is asked by an official at the Presidential Administration to “attack” two leading opposition politicians and a prosecutor.
The whistleblower, Hanna Solomatina, who works at the National Agency for Preventing Corruption, showed the Kyiv Post the alleged correspondence on her phone with the Presidential Administration official, Oleksiy Horashchenkov, and later published the messages on Facebook. Some of the messages were published exclusively by the Kyiv Post.
Solomatina told the Kyiv Post that she had decided to publish the correspondence because she was afraid the presidentially controlled Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, would take her phone away and destroy the evidence. The SBU is supposed to take the investigation of graft at the NAPC from the independent National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, and Solomatina says the SBU will destroy the case and cover up for NAPC officials.
The Presidential Administration and Horashchenkov did not respond to requests for comment. Horashchenkov is first deputy chief of the Presidential Administration’s department for strategic planning and operating support and a member of the commission for choosing NAPC officials.
Solomatina, head of the NAPC’s department for financial and lifestyle monitoring, told the Kyiv Post the correspondence took place from August until October and explained which persons were meant when no last name was mentioned.
According to the alleged correspondence, Horashchenkov told Solomatina to crack down on two opposition politicians, Batkivshchyna party leader Yulia Tymoshenko and Opposition Bloc lawmaker Vadym Rabynovych.
“You should start an attack on Yulia (Tymoshenko) and Rabynovych as soon as possible,” Horashchenkov allegedly said.
Horashchenkov also told Solomatina: “I’m asking you to give me three versions on the Georgian, as agreed.”
It was not clear which Georgian was meant. Solomatina previously told Ukrainska Pravda that the NAPC had been ordered by the Presidential Administration to find violations in the declarations of associates of ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, now a major opponent of President Petro Poroshenko.
One theory is that Horashchenkov could have meant Gizo Uglava, a Georgian-born deputy head of the NABU and an associate of Saakashvili.
Horashchenkov also asked Solomatina to “deal with” and “crack down on” Volodymyr Nechyporenko, a prosecutor in Odesa Oblast.
He wrote that “work is under way on (Energy Minister Ihor) Nasalik,” according to the alleged correspondence. A source close to the NAPC told the Kyiv Post there had been enough grounds for sending information on Nasalik’s asset declaration to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine for a potential criminal case but it has not been sent. The source spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Horashchenkov also mentioned Poroshenko in the alleged correspondence.
“I had to explain the situation with (then NAPC Chief of Staff) Igor (Tkachenko) and you to the president on Saturday because he personally voiced complaints to me about a governor and some complaints about Igor’s sphere,” Horashchenkov allegedly wrote. “I also named the dates of his resignation and yours, as agreed.”
Another person mentioned by Horashchenkov is NAPC Chief Natalia Korchak.
“I’ve spoken to K (Korchak) only once,” he allegedly said. “I asked her not to touch you before the 16th and not to block your work.”
Solomatina also showed to the Kyiv Post her alleged correspondence with then NAPC Chief of Staff Igor Tkachenko about her meeting with Horashchenkov.
“Office 439 of (Poroshenko’s) State Department of Affairs at 4 p.m.,” Tkachenko allegedly wrote. “The entrance permits have been ordered for everyone, the entrance is from Institutska Street. We’re meeting tomorrow about our agenda.”
Solomatina on Nov. 14 blew the whistle on her own agency, accusing it of being a political tool of Poroshenko, and being involved in mass-scale corruption and other crimes.
She said then that she had been summoned to the Presidential Administration twice in September, and Horashchenkov said that electronic asset declaration checks must first be considered and authorized by the Presidential Administration. Solomatina said she had refused to comply with the demand.
Tkachenko and Ruslan Kovalyov, the head of the NAPC’s human resources department, were present at the meeting, Solomatina said. Tkachenko confirmed to the Kyiv Post that he had participated in the meeting.
Meanwhile, Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytsky failed to appoint a prosecutor for the independent NABU’s case into alleged graft at the NAPC earlier this month, blocking the investigation. Eventually Kholodnytsky asked Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko to take the case away from the NABU, and Lutsenko sent it to the presidentially controlled SBU on Nov. 17.
Lutsenko and Kholodnytsky attributed the transfer to NABU Chief Artem Sytnyk’s alleged conflict of interest, because the NABU is investigating Korchak over an undeclared Skoda Octavia A7 car.
The transfer of the case to the SBU is deemed by critics to be an effort to bury the investigation, since the SBU is controlled by the Presidential Administration, which was accused by Solomatina of influencing the NAPC.
Solomatina on Nov. 18 lambasted Lutsenko and Kholodnytsky for the decision, saying that the transfer of the case to the SBU would constitute a conflict of interest because her testimony implicates Serhiy Karpushin, an SBU official and simultaneously an advisor to Korchak.
She said that before going public with the accusations, she brought them to the Prosecutor General’s Office. But Karpushin, who was supposed to transfer her documents to the Prosecutor General’s Office, effectively blocked the transfer and returned them to the NAPC, she said.
The SBU is also implicated in Horashchenkov’s alleged correspondence with Solomatina.
“Given that deadlines are expiring on some cases, and there will be no results from you, as the SBU tells us, there’s no point in dragging your feet, otherwise (then NAPC Chief of Staff) Igor (Tkachenko) will have serious problems,” Horashchenkov allegedly said.
In another message, Horashchenkov allegedly said “some (declaration) checks should be more fundamental, and people from Volodymyrska (the street where the SBU is located) will help you.”
Vitaly Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, said on Nov. 23 that the SBU also has a conflict of interest because the NAPC has allowed all SBU officials to make their declarations secret in what critics see as an effort to hide corrupt wealth.
Moreover, a deputy head of an SBU department is being investigated in the case into alleged corruption at the NAPC, the NABU told lawmaker Mustafa Nayyem in an official response.
Korchak, members of the NAPC’s collective leadership and a deputy head of a Presidential Administration department – an apparent reference to Horashchenkov – are also investigated over corruption in the case, the NABU said. Meanwhile, a Verkhovna Rada member is being investigated over allegedly giving a Hr 1 million bribe to the NAPC for falsifying an asset declaration, according to the bureau.
Sergii Gorbatuk, head of the in absentia investigations unit at the Prosecutor General’s Office, and lawyer Vitaly Tytych told the Kyiv Post that the transfer of the case to the SBU was illegal because only the inefficiency of investigations can be legal grounds for such a transfer, and it has not been proven. They dismissed the conflict of interest justification because only a specific NABU detective, not the agency as a whole, can have a conflict of interest.
Moreover, the SBU has no right to investigate top-level graft cases under the law, and Lutsenko would have to change the Criminal Code article to transfer the case, which is an illegal manipulation, Gorbatuk added. The SBU did not respond to a request for comment.
Kholodnytsky has been repeatedly accused of blocking NABU investigations and being influenced by Poroshenko – accusations that he denies.
Oksana Divnich, head of the NAPC’s internal audit unit, confirmed Solomatina’s claims on Nov. 15. Solomatina said that Vadym Nikolayev, head of the corruption prevention unit, was also ready to testify in support of her accusations.
Some of their accusations have also been confirmed by Tkachenko and two ex-members of the NAPC’s collective leadership — Ruslan Radetzky and Rouslan Riaboshapka.
Meanwhile, high-profile investigations also face total collapse due to new procedural code amendments and alleged efforts to destroy the NABU and the in absentia investigations unit at the Prosecutor General’s Office.
