Pavlo Vovk, a top judge charged with corruption, visited the Presidential Administration soon after Volodymyr Zelensky took office in May 2019, the Slidstvo.Info investigative journalism agency reports.
On Nov. 3, Slidstvo.Info published the second part of its investigation into Vovk based on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau’s (NABU) recordings of conversations from the judge’s office.
The recordings suggest that Vovk, head of the very influential Kyiv Administrative District Court, was in close contact with Zelensky’s right-hand man Andriy Bohdan prior to the election. Soon after Zelensky became president in May 2019, Bohdan was appointed chief of staff.
Days after the inauguration, Bohdan allegedly invited Vovk to meet him at the administration. The substance of their conversation remains unknown. Bohdan is a top lawyer familiar with the country’s court system and many of its judges. He didn’t respond to a request for comment.
On an earlier tape, Vovk allegedly referred to then-presidential candidate Zelensky as “a total loser.”
Earlier, the Kyiv Post reported that Vovk, one of the most influential Ukrainian judges charged with corruption, allegedly discussed with Bohdan the appointment of Oleksandr Tupytsky as the head of the Constitutional Court around the same time Vovk visited the chief of staff at the President’s Office in May 2019.
A year after the conversation, Tupytsky spearheaded the court’s campaign against anti-graft institutions, which has now brought the country to the brink of a political and constitutional crisis. He is being investigated by the State Investigation Bureau for high treason.
Vovk himself stands charged with organized crime, usurpation of power, bribery and unlawful interference in the work of the High Qualification Commission of Judges, a state body that selects and vets judges.
Vovk is successfully evading prosecution by remaining the head of the Kyiv Administrative District Court which grants him immunity. On Nov. 3, he was placed on the wanted list because he was ignoring summons for interrogation.
The President’s Office hasn’t yet commented on its alleged dealings with Vovk. Earlier, Zelensky stated that he had no right to interfere in the judiciary.
Bohdan was fired in February.
New discoveries
The NABU began publishing audiotapes recorded in Vovk’s office as part of an ongoing investigation alleging that Vovk had violated the law on multiple occasions.
Slidstvo.Info’s revelations are based on the NABU tapes obtained by the news outlet.
The new findings reveal that Vovk was in contact with Bohdan before Zelensky became president and continued to talk to him on the phone and, allegedly, in person after Zelensky took office.
When Bohdan was head of Zelensky’s office, he never publicly disclosed his meetings with judge Vovk.
According to the tapes, Vovk and his colleagues were closely following the 2019 presidential election.
“We aren’t betting on Petro (Poroshenko in the election),” Vovk said on one of the tapes. Then-President Poroshenko was eventually defeated by Zelensky in the runoff.
But Vovk also wasn’t fond of Zelensky.
“Look at him, he’s clearly a loser,” the judge said about the future president in another conversation.
That didn’t stop Vovk from trying to get on Zelensky’s good side.
Shortly before the 2019 presidential election, when it was clear that Zelensky was the race’s favorite, Vovk issued a ruling beneficial to Zelensky. It overturned the ban on “Svaty” (“In-Laws”), a sitcom produced by Zelensky, in Ukraine.
The hit show had been banned from airing in Ukraine since 2017 because a Russian actor who starred in one of the main roles violated Ukrainain laws by visiting Russian-occupied Crimea and supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Vovk didn’t stop there.
Weeks before the election’s runoff in April, Vovk called Bohdan and offered to put him in touch with an acquaintance who could campaign for Zelensky in Kirovohrad Oblast.
According to Slidstvo.Info, Vovk also met with Bohdan in March 2019, before the election’s first round.
“We talked a lot with Andriy (Bohdan),” Vovk is recorded saying, implying they frequently called each other.
Soon after Zelensky took office, Vovk was invited to the President’s Office by Bohdan and was allegedly told how to enter the building unnoticed.
Previously, the first part of Slidstvo.info’s investigation showed that Vovk had ties with Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and his allies.
From the NABU recordings of Vovk, Slidstvo.Info learned that the judge had often spoken with Serhiy Chebotar, a former deputy and current close associate of Avakov. The two men discussed appointing a person loyal to Vovk to the High Qualification Commission of Judges, which vets, hires and fires judges.
Back in 2017, Chebotar and Avakov’s son Oleksandr Avakov were charged by the NABU with embezzling Hr 14 million ($550,000) by supplying overpriced backpacks to the Interior Ministry.
It was Vovk’s court that closed that case.
Vovk’s powers and controversy
Vovk likely is the most notorious judge in Ukraine.
On July 17, the Prosecutor General’s Office and NABU published audio recordings implicating Vovk and other judges of his court in alleged crimes.
Among them are organized crime, usurpation of power, bribery and unlawful interference with government officials. Vovk has also been accused of having control over the Constitutional Court, which, together with his court, is waging a war against Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions.
Read More: Case against notorious judges shows dire need of reforming Ukraine’s judiciary.
In May 2019, the Constitutional Court fired its chairman, Stanyslav Shevchuk, for alleged procedural violations. He was replaced with Natalia Shaptala. When Shaptala’s term as a judge of the court expired, Tupytsky became the court’s head in September 2019.
A source familiar with the matter told the Kyiv Post that Vovk discussed Shevchuk’s dismissal and Tupytsky’s appointment by phone with a certain “Andriy.” The source requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak with the press.
“Andriy” could refer to either Andriy Bohdan or his friend Andriy Portnov, ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s deputy chief of staff in charge of the judicial system.
A year later, the Tupytsky-Vovk duo started a constitutional crisis in Ukraine.
On Sept. 16, the Constitutional Court ruled that some provisions of the law on the NABU were unconstitutional, stalling the work of Ukraine’s most credible anti-corruption agency. On Oct. 27, the Kyiv Administrative District Court led by Vovk ruled that Artem Sytnyk, head of NABU, must be fired.
A day later, the Constitutional Court ruled to dismantle the online asset declaration system. On Oct. 28, the court ruled that these powers were unconstitutional and also canceled penalties for lying in officials’ asset declarations.
Read More: Constitutional Court destroys Ukraine’s asset declaration system
The National Agency for Preventing Corruption (NAPC) accused Constitutional Court judges Iryna Zavhorodnya and Serhiy Holovaty of having a conflict of interest but still voting for the decision, which is banned by the law.
On Nov. 3, the NABU placed Vovk on its wanted list for a second time. Additionally, the government ruled to ignore the Constitutional Court’s decision.
However, Vovk is safe. His immunity can only be lifted by the High Council of Justice, which refused to do so on Sept. 1, despite Vovk being charged with corruption.
Now the main push to remove Vovk comes from civil society.
A petition to liquidate the odious Kyiv Administrative District Court on Oct. 26 collected the necessary 25,000 signatures on the website of the President’s Office.
The President’s Office stated that it is finally looking into the matter, over 16 months after Vovk was welcomed into the office by Bohdan.
Editor’s Note: This report is part of the Investigative Hub project, within which the Kyiv Post team monitors investigative reports in the Ukrainian media and brings them to the English-speaking audience. The project is supported by the National Endowment for Democracy.
