The High Anti-Corruption Court has arrested Oleh Hladkovsky, a former top defense official accused of abuse of power, for two months with the right to post bail of Hr 10.6 million ($423,500).
The decision came on Oct. 19 after a nearly 12-hour-long hearing that began the previous day. Hladkovsky’s defense claimed the case was politically motivated.
The former deputy head of the National Defense and Security Council and owner of the Bohdan Motors automotive corporation, Hladkovsky was arrested on Oct. 17 not long after being barred from leaving Ukraine at Kyiv Boryspil Airport. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) charged him with lying in asset declarations and abusing his power during state procurement tenders.
According to NABU, Hladkovsky took advantage of his public office to the benefit of his private company. The detectives believe that he included off-road trucks manufactured by a Bohdan Motors subsidiary in a state procurement order at an inflated price.
In addition, he allegedly did not declare his wife’s income of over $164,000 from renting out elite real estate in central Kyiv.
In a statement, Bohdan Motors’ press service said Hladkovsky had planned to travel to an international bus manufacturers’ exhibition in Brussels on the day he was arrested and had not been trying to flee the country.
The charges against Hladkovsky are not connected to an embezzlement scheme in the state defense industry allegedly run by his son. According to a report released by investigative journalists in February, the scheme involved smuggling used parts for military equipment from Russia and reselling them to Ukrainian defense producers at inflated prices.
Read more: Poroshenko fires Hladkovsky amid swirling defense corruption scandal
The scandal erupted at the height of the presidential race, sparking a wave of protests and dealing a heavy blow to then-President Petro Poroshenko’s reelection campaign.
Under public pressure, Poroshenko fired Hladkovsky, a political ally and his former business partner.
A day after Hladkovsky’s arrest by anti-corruption detectives, Poroshenko released
a video on Facebook lambasting the budget policy of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government and saying that spectacular arrests were a performance aimed at distracting the population.
