The State Investigation Bureau on July 11 issued a summons for ex-President Petro Poroshenko to be questioned on July 17 in relation to an undisclosed criminal case.
Poroshenko’s spokesman Sviatoslav Tsegolko did not respond to a request for comment. Poroshenko argued in May that the criminal allegations against him were a politically motivated part of the parliamentary election campaign ahead of the July 21 vote.
He also claimed they had been initiated by “enemies of Ukraine” which has been perceived as a veiled reference to Andriy Portnov, ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s former deputy chief of staff.
The bureau said it could not divulge which specific case they wanted to question Poroshenko about.
But Portnov, who has initiated a number of criminal cases against Poroshenko, said that the questioning is related to a money laundering accusation in relation to Poroshenko’s $300 million sale of the Rybalska Kuznya shipyard to businessman Serhiy Tigipko in 2018.
The State Investigation Bureau has opened eight criminal cases involving Poroshenko, according to its chief, Roman Truba, but Poroshenko has not been charged in any of them.
The bureau is investigating Poroshenko for alleged treason in relation to Russia’s seizure of 24 Ukrainian sailors in Black Sea waters near the Kerch Strait on Nov. 25, 2018.
Another case concerns the alleged forgery of documents during the creation of a parliamentary coalition in 2016.
Poroshenko also features in an investigation into allegations of money laundering and tax evasion during the acquisition of the Pryamy television channel.
Poroshenko does not directly own Pryamy but media experts have attributed the channel’s ownership to him or his circle, based on the channel’s bias towards the ex-president. He denies the allegations.
Yet another State Investigation Bureau case concerns Poroshenko’s allegedly illegal appointment of two members of the High Council of Justice in May.
In April, the Kyiv Administrative District Court banned Poroshenko from appointing them because competition procedures had allegedly been violated.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is also investigating Poroshenko in a corruption case involving Dmytro Kryuchkov, the CEO of power company Energomerezha. He testified in April that Poroshenko and his top ally Igor Kononenko had received 50 to 70 percent of the income from energy corruption schemes. Both have denied the accusations.
In April the National Police also charged Volodymyr Sabadash, mayor of the city of Vasylkiv in Kyiv Oblast, with buying votes on behalf of Poroshenko’s campaign. Poroshenko denied the existence of the alleged vote buying scheme.
The police have also opened an investigation into alleged vote rigging in favor of Poroshenko in Donetsk Oblast in the first round of the presidential election on March 31. Poroshenko’s campaign denied the accusations of voting fraud.
In June the State Investigation Bureau also searched the house of Yuriy Biryukov, an ex-Poroshenko advisor and a candidate for parliament on the list of Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party, as part of a criminal case into alleged embezzlement during the purchase of bullet-proof vests for the army. European Solidarity interpreted the case as political pressure.
Meanwhile, Oleh Hladkovsky, a top ally of Poroshenko, and his son Igor are under investigation in relation to a scheme to embezzle millions of dollars from state defense enterprises.
In March top prosecutor Kostyantyn Kulik also brought embezzlement and money laundering charges against several Poroshenko allies, including ex-National Bank of Ukraine Chief Valeria Gontareva, Poroshenko’s ex-Chief of Staff Borys Lozhkin and Poroshenko’s former Deputy Chief of Staff Oleksiy Filatov. However, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko later canceled the charges.
