A bribe to the top officials of anti-corruption bodies was offered for the closure of a criminal proceeding where former ecology minister Mykola Zlochevsky was suspected of embezzlement, which would have allowed him to return to Ukraine, Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Artem Sytnyk has said.
“A bribe of $6 million was intended to close the episode when the ex-minister of ecology assisted in embezzling the stabilization loan from the National Bank issued to Real Bank,” Sytnyk said at a briefing in Kyiv on June 13 morning.
He said that a number of persons were suspected in this episode, including Zlochevsky.
“Why people who offered illegal benefit were in a rush? Because tomorrow Mr. Zlochevsky had a birthday and had a plan to achieve the maximum result, namely to close the criminal proceedings and ensure the return of Mr. Zlochevsky to Ukraine,” the director of NABU said.
On June 12, a former official, with the assistance of an official of the State Fiscal Service in Kyiv and others, tried to transfer $6 million of illegal benefit to Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) Nazar Kholodnytsky and NABU top officials.
