The High Anti-Corruption Court on Aug. 3 released without bail Zenovy Kholodnyuk, a top judicial official charged in a major corruption case against some of Ukraine’s most notorious judges, including Pavlo Vovk.
The court ruled that the charges against Kholodnyuk, head of the State Judicial Administration, were valid and instructed him not to speak to other suspects in the case. Kholodnyuk had been charged by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine with organized crime and bribery, and the prosecutors had requested imposing bail worth Hr 1 million on Kholodnyuk.
Kholodnyuk’s State Judicial Administration is responsible for handling organizational and financial issues to support the court system’s functioning.
The case involves some of Ukraine’s most controversial and politically influential judges who are accused of obstructing justice, organized crime and bribery. Kholodnyuk and the judges deny the accusations of wrongdoing.
Law enforcement has faced accusations of sabotaging the case due to the political connections of Vovk, the head of the Kyiv Administrative District Court.
At the Aug. 3 hearing, prosecutors presented a forensic assessment according to which the voice in NABU recordings ascribed to Vovk belongs to the judge.
Kholodnyuk’s background
Kholodnyuk has held his job since 2014. He must have been fired under the 2014 lustration law on the dismissal of officials who served ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. Kholodnyuk was a deputy head of the State Judicial Administration during the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, and the lustration law directly bans those who held this job then.
However, Kholodnyuk managed to escape lustration. Moreover, he kept his job even when his term expired in 2019.
In February 2019 a competition commission appointed Serhiy Pushkar as head of the State Judicial Administration to replace Kholodnyuk.
Kholodnyuk filed a lawsuit seeking to cancel the appointment. In March 2019 Volodymyr Keleberda, a judge of the Kyiv District Administrative Court, issued a ruling that suspended Pushkar’s appointment until Kholodnyuk’s lawsuit is considered.
As a result, Kholodnyuk is still keeping his job, and the court has not even considered his lawsuit for one and a half years.
Quid pro quo
In tapes released by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, Vovk discussed “a quid pro quo” with Kholodnyuk in February to March 2019. He would help Kholodnyuk keep his job in exchange for Kholodnyuk appointing a member of the High Qualification Commission of Judges loyal to Vovk.
As part of the deal, Kholodnyuk appointed Serhiy Ostapets as a member of the High Qualification Commission in May 2019. Ostapets, who was also charged in the case, could not be reached for comment, and the commission did not respond to a request for comment.
“Zenovy will have to do something so it can be solved politically as a quid pro quo,” Vovk said. “(Kholodnyuk) is helping us so I don’t see any point in rejecting his offer.”
“Pasha, I’m sticking to you,” Ostapets told Vovk in the tapes. “I’ll stick to you and ask you to help me.”
Vovk reassured him that he should apply for the job.
The recordings also show Vovk giving instructions to Keleberda on how to issue a ruling in favor of Kholodnyuk.
“I cannot forbid anyone to mention my name in private conversations but at the same time I am not responsible for the content of these conversations,” Kholodnyuk told the Kyiv Post. “I know Pavlo Vovk in person, but I have never talked with him about holding a public competition for High Qualification Commission of Judges members.”
Kholodnyuk also argued that it was not him personally but a competition commission appointed by him that chose one of the members of the High Qualification Commission – an apparent reference to Ostapets.
“The competition commission determines the winner of the competition,” he said. “The winner of the competition also passes a special check. Only after the winner of the competition is chosen and passes the inspection, the head of the State Judicial Administration signs an order appointing the winner as a member of the High Qualification Commission of Judges.”
Bribery
Vovk also says in the tapes that Kholodnyuk must give bribes for a court ruling in his favor and its enforcement.
Specifically, he said Kholodnyuk must pay for the enforcement of the ruling by the Justice Ministry’s bailiff service.
“Our lawyers received everything – we’ve done everything we promised,” Vovk said in the tapes. “Valik has good contacts but he will also tell you to give him a couple of kopecks. Everyone must be given something.”
He said that Andriy Dovbenko, a controversial lawyer accused of running shady schemes at the Justice Ministry, may help with the enforcement of the ruling.
According to a 2017 investigation by the Bihus.info journalism project, Dobvenko has become the gray cardinal behind the Justice Ministry. Specifically, proteges of Dovbenko have been appointed to many key jobs at the Justice Ministry, including in the bailiff service.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s former chief of staff, Andriy Bohdan, attended the wedding of Dovbenko in the French resort of Saint Tropez, according to an investigation released by Bihus.info on Sept. 9, 2019. Dovbenko did not respond to a request for comment, and Bohdan declined to comment.’
Poroshenko’s involvement
Vovk also said in the recordings that he had discussed keeping Kholodnyuk in his job with Oleksandr Hranovsky, an ex-lawmaker who was accused of influencing law enforcement under former President Petro Poroshenko. In the recording, Vovk said that Hranovsky had talked to Poroshenko, who said that Kholodnyuk must remain on his job.
Hranovsky and Poroshenko previously denied influencing law enforcement. They did not respond to requests for comment.
Poroshenko also told Igor Benedysyuk, then head of the High Council of Justice and now a Supreme Court judge, not to have Kholodnyuk replaced, Vovk said in the recordings. Benedysyuk did not respond to a request for comment.
Vovk said that Poroshenko’s top allies and lawmakers Ruslan Knyazevych and Ihor Kononenko, as well as Poroshenko’s ex-deputy chief of staff Oleksiy Filatov were also involved in the scheme to keep Kholodnyuk in his job.
“Poroshenko went to Knyazevych, Knyazevych went to Kononenko, Kononenko asked us to do this,” Vovk said.
Vovk told Kholodnyuk that “according to Kononenko’s position, he reached an agreement with the president, and nobody is touching you.”
Kononenko told the Kyiv Post he was not acquainted with Vovk, while Knyazevych and Filatov did not respond to requests for comment.
Kivalov’s involvement
Vovk also mentions the role of Serhiy Kivalov, an ex-lawmaker and former Yanukovych ally, in influencing the quid pro quo with Kholodnyuk. Antonina Slavytska, a former lawmaker and aide to Kivalov, talked to Ostapets about appointing him to the High Qualification Commission in the recordings.
“Ask (Kivalov),” Ostapets told Slavytska, “We’ll pay something after that. Give us an opportunity.”
Kivalov is believed to have held great influence over the judiciary since he was the head of the High Council of Justice in 2001 to 2004.
Kivalov and Slavytska did not respond to requests for comment.
Vovk case
In August 2019, the Prosecutor General’s Office pressed its first charges against Vovk and two other judges of his court.
The judges were then charged with obstructing the work of the High Qualification Commission of Judges, issuing unlawful rulings and unlawfully interfering in the work of other judges.
In 2019, prosecutors applied to extend the pre-trial investigation period by three months. However, Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky Court rejected their motion and ordered the Prosecutor General’s Office to either close the case against the judges or send it to trial within five days. The prosecutors did not send it to trial, and the case stalled indefinitely after that.
On July 17, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine resurrected the case and charged Vovk, head of the Kyiv Administrative District Court, and other judges of his court, with organized crime, usurpation of power, bribery and unlawful interference with government officials.
Two sources at the NABU and the Prosecutor General’s Office told the Kyiv Post that Deputy Prosecutor General Andriy Lyubovich is facing pressure from Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova for authorizing the new charges. She was supposed to apply to the High Council of Justice for suspending Vovk and the other judges but has not done that so far.
The Prosecutor General’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.
