Sergii Gorbatuk, head of the in absentia cases department of the Prosecutor General’s Office, exposed alleged corrupt dealings between prosecutors and allies of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych in a June 25 interview with the Kyiv Post.
As a result of these dealings, Gorbatuk said, Yanukovych cronies are facing reduced charges or no charges at all for their alleged wrongdoing during Yanukovych’s four-year rule, when an estimated $40 billion was stolen from Ukrainian taxpayers.
In some cases, Gorbatuk said, prosecutors, under Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko’s direction, are simply sabotaging investigations.
The Prosecutor General’s Office, which had previously denied such allegations, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Deputy Prosecutor General Eugene Enin previously denied Gorbatuk’s accusations, accusing him of playing “political games.”
The revelations came after Lutsenko confirmed that Gorbatuk’s department, which has been investigating the murders of more than 100 participants of the EuroMaidan Revolution that drove Yanukovych from power, would be liquidated.
It is not clear if Lutsenko actually signed the liquidation order.
Gorbatuk attributed the planned liquidation to his criticism of the authorities’ alleged shady dealings with Yanukovych associates suspected of major crimes.
The Prosecutor General’s Office denied the accusations, saying the restructuring was in line with the concept of separating investigative and prosecution functions.
The lawyers of EuroMaidan protesters said on June 25 that the liquidation of Gorbatuk’s unit “will lead to the collapse of EuroMaidan investigations.”
“We believe that the purpose of this liquidation is getting rid of an independent and critical subordinate – department head Sergii Gorbatuk, as well as of independent investigators and prosecutors,” the lawyers said in a group statement. “Another aim for the leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office is to micromanage cases in which it has an interest.”
Politicized prosecution
According to the liquidation plan, prosecutors from Gorbatuk’s unit and other units of the Prosecutor General’s Office will be transferred to a single prosecution department overseen by Deputy Prosecutor General Yuriy Stolyarchuk, while investigators from the in absentia cases unit and other units will be transferred to a single investigative unit supervised by Deputy Prosecutor General Anzhela Stryzhevska.
Lutsenko said that all prosecutors and investigators working on EuroMaidan cases would keep their jobs.
Gorbatuk said Lutsenko wants to interfere in his unit’s work. He argued that the prosecution service remains a politicized and centralized “Stalin-style” behemoth, despite Lutsenko presenting his office as a reformed, effective law enforcement agency.
“I make sure that (investigators and prosecutors) make decisions compatible with the law,” Gorbatuk told the Kyiv Post. “I don’t interfere into their work. My main task is to make sure that (the leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office) doesn’t influence the cases.”
Gorbatuk said that, after the liquidation of his unit, Lutsenko could start sending in absentia cases against some Yanukovych allies to trial as a publicity stunt despite the fact that Ukrainian law on in absentia trials violates international law. As a result, such cases are likely to collapse in Ukrainian or European courts, he added.
Ukrainian authorities have failed to bring in absentia trials legislation in line with international law likely because of bargains with Yanukovych allies, Gorbatuk added.
Gorbatuk said that Lutsenko, who he claimed is subservient to President Petro Poroshenko, decides “who to prosecute and whose cases to close,” he said.
“Those who don’t agree are fired… As usual, this is decided by the president. Any president uses the Prosecutor General’s Office to prosecute or destroy someone, or close cases. This led to a situation in which law enforcement agencies committed all possible crimes during the EuroMaidan Revolution.”
The Presidential Administration denied Gorbatuk’s accusations, calling them “lies.”
Stavytsky case
The plans to liquidate Gorbatuk’s department came days after Gorbatuk and one of his subordinates, Andriy Radionov, said that Stryzhevska and another deputy prosecutor general, Enin, had no right to negotiate with Yanukovych’s Energy Minister Eduard Stavytsky as part of the Hr 540 million embezzlement case against him.
Enin and Stryzhevska met with Stavytsky in 2016 in a hotel in Tel Aviv in Israel to negotiate the charges against him, according to an audio recording of the meeting leaked to Slidstvo.Info and published on June 9.
The recording implies that the investigators could have conspired with the ex-minister, who has been wanted for embezzlement since 2014, in a backroom deal to soften the charges against him.
The Prosecutor General’s Office said the meeting was part of a due process of negotiation with the suspect.
But Radionov, an investigator in the Stavytsky case, and Gorbatuk contradicted them, saying that Stryzhevska and Enin had no right to represent the investigation.
The journalists also released an audio recording of a call between a man sounding like Stavytsky and an unidentified mediator, whom he refers to as “Kolya.” They discuss the future meeting with Stryzhevska, and “Kolya” says he will offer her “200” – presumably a bribe of $200,000.
Gorbatuk claimed that after the Stavytsky case was taken away from his department in 2016, Stryzhevska had been trying to persuade the investigators and prosecutors to change the charges to negligence. They “were negotiating to change the charges to minimal ones,” Gorbatuk said.
“They are also in talks on compensating a certain part of the losses and putting another part in their pockets.”
However, the charges were unchanged. The case was sent to court in May with the original charges – embezzlement and money laundering.
Gorbatuk said that apparently they had failed to reach a final deal with Stavytsky so far. However, they might change the charges or reach a plea bargain during the trial, he added.
Vitaly Tytych, a lawyer for EuroMaidan protesters who closely works with Gorbatuk’s unit, told the Kyiv Post that Stavytsky’s messengers had been constantly approaching prosecutors to reach a deal in exchange for bribes.
Plea bargains
Gorbatuk also criticized plea bargains between the Prosecutor General’s Office and Oleksandr Katsuba, the former deputy head of oil and gas firm Naftogaz, Andriy Holovach, an ex-deputy head of the tax agency, and former Deputy Economy Minister Oleksandr Sukhomlyn in embezzlement cases.
Losses attributed to Katsuba are estimated at Hr 12 billion, but he only paid Hr 100 million to the budget. Sukhomlin and Holovach paid a total of Hr 150 million to the budget and caused losses worth Hr 4 billion and Hr 3 billion, respectively.
Gorbatuk said that the conditions of the plea bargains were too soft, the amounts of compensation were small, and the suspects did not get jail time.
“When this happens, they understand that they can steal enough to give up a little bit later and escape punishment,” he said. “If you’re a top official who stole money, you’ve got to plead guilty, give evidence that the investigators hadn’t known before and get five to seven years in prison (under a plea bargain).”
Zlochevsky saga
The unlawful enrichment case against Yanukovych’s Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky, who has denied any wrongdoing, has also been taken away from Gorbatuk’s department.
Lutsenko first changed the charges to tax evasion and then closed the Zlochevsky case in January 2017, with Zlochevsky’s company Burisma Group paying Hr 180 million to the budget.
“I have big doubts and suspicions about this case,” Gorbatuk said. “There are deals where part of the money goes to those who negotiate it, and the rest goes to the budget.”
Zlochevsky and Ukrainian authorities have denied the accusations of conspiring. The Hr 180 million transferred to the budget is much less than the $23 million, or Hr 604 million, blocked in the United Kingdom in 2014 in bank accounts of Zlochevsky’s companies as part of an investigation of alleged corruption.
The UK closed the case in 2015, saying the Ukrainian authorities didn’t cooperate in the case. In April, fugitive lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko published what he claimed to be a recording implicating President Petro Poroshenko and Zlochevsky in corrupt deals.
The Presidential Administration said that “fakes do not require comments.”
Zlochevsky’s Burisma group has supplied natural gas to firms owned by Poroshenko and his top allies Ihor Kononenko and Oleh Gladkovsky, Radio Liberty’s Schemes investigative show reported in 2017. Both Kononenko and Gladkovsky, as well as Poroshenko’s representatives, told Radio Liberty that they had no executive control over the assets and thus were not responsible for who their companies deal with.
Other Yanukovych cases
The leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office also refused to sign a notice of suspicion for Yanukovych’s Justice Minister Olena Lukash on embezzlement charges for more than a year and then transferred the case from Gorbatuk’s unit to the main investigative department, Gorbatuk said.
“They are destroying the case,” he added. In March, the case was transferred to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine.
The embezzlement case against ex-Interior Minister Oleksandr Zakharchenko was taken away from Gorbatuk in 2016 and transferred to the organized crime department, headed by Dmytro Basov.
Later the case was sent to the State Fiscal Service and then back to Gorbatuk’s unit several weeks ago. Gorbatuk said that Stryzhevska herself had claimed that Basov had “sold the case.”
Stryzhevska and Basov did not respond to requests for comment.
Deputy Prosecutor General Yuriy Stolyarchuk, who did not respond to a request for comment, also illegally closed the case against Poroshenko Bloc lawmaker Arkady Kornatsky despite not having the authority to do so, Gorbatuk said. Later a court ordered prosecutors to re-open the case.
Gorbatuk said that Stolyarchuk had said the case should be closed on Lutsenko’s orders.
In 2016 to 2017, Lutsenko also took away from Gorbatuk’s department corruption cases against Yanukovych, ex-Tax and Revenue Minister Oleksandr Klymenko, ex-Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko, ex-lawmaker Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, ex-Education Minister Dmytrro Tabachnyk, ex-State Customs Service Chief Ihor Kaletnik, ex-Party of Regions faction chief Oleksandr Yefremov, lawmaker Vadym Novynsky and ex-Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk. Lutsenko said the cases had been taken from the unit due to “inefficiency”, while Gorbatuk said that they were taken away unlawfully without legal grounds and had stalled since then.
As a result of Lutsenko’s actions, many lower-level suspects in Yanukovych-era cases, including incumbent officials, have escaped being charged, Gorbatuk said. These include 30 people in the Boyko case, 14 people in the Lukash case, about 70 people in the Klymenko case and 15 people in the case against Vera Ulyanchenko, ex-President Viktor Yushchenko’s ex-chief of staff, he added.
A Ukrainian court closed a case against fugitive ex-Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky, who was suspected of illicit enrichment and tax evasion. The activists claim that the Prosecutor General’s Office made a backroom deal with Zlochevsky and intentionally sabotaged the case, an accusation that the prosecutors denied. (Kyiv Post)
Gorbatuk: Prosecutors cover up for judges investigated for graft
Sergii Gorbatuk, head of the in absentia investigations unit of the Prosecutor General’s Office, has accused the leadership of the prosecutor’s office of holding back on investigating judges suspected of corruption as a means to maintain control and influence over the judiciary.
The Prosecutor General’s Office, which had denied similar accusations in the past, did not respond to requests for comment.
One prominent case concerns three incumbent and several former judges of the Constitutional Court. They are accused of issuing several rulings that enabled ex-President Viktor Yanukovych to monopolize power in 2010.
The judges denied any wrongdoing in their rulings. Since September 2014, no investigative actions were taken in the case before it was transferred to the in absentia investigations unit in 2016, Gorbatuk told the Kyiv Post.
“(The judges) were kept on a leash,” he said. “Prosecutors were told not to touch them because the judges had to issue a certain ruling. We were told that the Presidential Administration was behind such instructions.”
The Presidential Administration called the accusations “lies.”
Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko claimed that Constitutional Court judges cannot be charged due to technicalities of Ukrainian law, while Gorbatuk said that he believes they can be charged in the case.
Gorbatuk also said that Deputy Prosecutor General Anzhela Stryzhevska had been trying to take the $5,000 bribery case against Yuriy Koval, former head of Mykolayiv Oblast’s Commercial Court, away from his unit.
Koval said in the interviews that law enforcers provoked him to take a bribe and consequently beat him up. Gorbatuk claimed that Stryzhevska had summoned the prosecutor and investigator in the Koval case and asked them “How dare you complete the investigation?”
Meanwhile, Koval has met with Lutsenko at an official meeting despite being a suspect, he added. Stryzhevska did not respond to a request for comment.
Yet another example is the case of Volodymyr Babenko, chairman of Cherkasy Oblast’s Court of Appeal, who is accused of unlawfully pressuring Serhiy Bondarenko, a judge of his court, and of illegally selling a building that belonged to the Cherkasy City Council.
Babenko denied the accusations. Gorbatuk said that the investigation into the building sold by Babenko had been unlawfully taken away from his unit, and Stryzhevska had been refusing to sign a notice of suspicion in the unlawful pressure case since September.
Stryzhevska is also refusing to sign a notice of suspicion for Anatoly Ivchenko, a judge of the Kyiv Commercial Court.
Ivchenko is being investigated over allegedly issuing an unlawful ruling when he required the Ukrainian government to satisfy the Russian Defense Ministry’s Hr 3.1 billion debt claim against United Energy Systems of Ukraine in 2012. Ivchenko couldn’t be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prosecutor General Yuriy Stolyarchuk has illegally closed the unlawful ruling case against Olena Kopytova, a judge of the Kyiv Commercial Court of Appeal, despite not having the authority to do so, Gorbatuk said. The judge is the daughter of Serhiy Kopytov, who was a top official at the Interior Ministry when Lutsenko headed it in 2007 to 2010.
Stolyarchuk did not respond to a request for comment.
