Key evidence has been presented in court according to which Mykola Martynenko, formerly a top lawmaker from the People’s Front party charged with corruption, is the beneficiary of a Panamanian firm that is suspected of receiving kickbacks for government contracts.
Martynenko sees the case as fabricated and denied the authenticity of the evidence.
A Swiss bank document presented in court in Kyiv on Jan. 10 and published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty shows the name of Mykola Martynenko as the single beneficiary of the firm Bradcrest Investments.
This firm has been investigated in Ukraine, Switzerland and the Czech Republic on suspicion of receiving a 6.4 million euro kickback from Czech engineering firm Skoda to give it a contract to supply equipment to Ukraine’s state nuclear power monopoly Energoatom.
Prosecutors obtained the document from Switzerland’s Fortis Banque. The firm had an account at the bank.
The document was signed by Martynenko and his associate Pavlo Skalenko.
The Martynenko trial began in Kyiv in November 2018. If found guilty, he can face up to 12 years in prison.
It’s not the only corruption case where Martynenko is a suspect.
In 2017, Martynenko was charged in a separate case with embezzling $17 million at the state-owned Eastern Ore Dressing Plant. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine suspects that the state-owned plant was buying the overpriced uranium and receiving kickbacks.
The Ukrainska Pravda online newspaper reported in 2015 that Austria’s Steuermann Investitions, which is allegedly controlled by Martynenko, was selling Kazakh uranium ore at a huge profit to the state-owned Eastern Ore Dressing Plant, which buys uranium for Energoatom.
Martynenko was arrested in April 2017, but released when several lawmakers vouched for him. Before that, he quit parliament, giving up his immunity to prosecution. His defense lawyers said he did it to manifest his innocence.
Yet another case involving Martynenko concerns an alleged corruption scheme at the Odesa Portside Plant, through which Austria’s Antra sold natural gas to the plant at above-market prices.
Martynenko’s partner Pereloma and Mykola Shchurikov, a deputy CEO of the plant, are accused of embezzling Hr 205 million ($7.7 million) from the company.
