The Prosecutor General’s Office and Kyiv’s discredited Pechersk District Court are helping ex-Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky to evade responsibility in a bribery case, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine said on Dec. 31.
The agency known as NABU said the Pechersk Court and the Prosecutor General’s Office are trying to seize control of the case to save Zlochevsky. The Prosecutor General’s Office denied the accusations of wrongdoing, while the Pechersk court did not respond to a request for comment.
The statement comes as Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova and discredited courts are accused of unprecedented obstruction of the NABU and Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) to protect corrupt officials. The Pechersk court and Venediktova have ordered the transfer of key corruption cases from the NABU to politically pliant law enforcement bodies and the closure of some cases.
“We have not seen so many unlawful actions by prosecutors and courts during the whole period of anti-corruption institutions’ existence,” the NABU said in a statement.
Bribery case
In July Zlochevsky and several of his alleged accomplices were charged by the NABU with attempting to give a $5 million bribe to the leadership of the NABU and SAPO to close an embezzlement case against the ex-minister. Zlochevsky, who denies the accusations, is believed to be abroad and is wanted by the NABU. This is the largest documented bribe in Ukrainian history, according to the bureau.
In October the Pechersk Court ordered the Prosecutor General’s Office to close the Zlochevsky embezzlement case, which prompted speculation that the court is involved in the bribery scheme. The SAPO appealed the ruling.
The bribery investigation was completed in early December, and anti-corruption prosecutors are preparing to send it to trial.
On Dec. 24, the Pechersk Court also ordered Venediktova to take the Zlochevsky bribery case away from the NABU.
The Pechersk court refused to give the text of the ruling to anti-corruption prosecutors who are in charge of the case and only gave it to other prosecutors who are not authorized to handle the case.
“The NABU and SAPO are announcing that there is unprecedented resistance from some employees of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Pechersk Court as a result of which (Zlochevsky) may evade responsibility for a grave corruption-related crime,” the NABU said on Dec. 31.
The NABU said that there is evidence that Zlochevsky is influencing top officials, including ones at law enforcement agencies.
“Instead of resisting the unlawful actions of the court, the Prosecutor General’s Office is helping to legitimize them,” the bureau added.
The NABU and the SAPO believe the ruling on the transfer of the Zlochevsky case to be unlawful and appealed it
Under Ukrainian law, the Zlochevsky bribery case falls directly into the NABU’s jurisdiction, and NABU cases cannot be considered by other law enforcement agencies. Disputes on the NABU’s jurisdiction can only be considered by the High Anti-Corruption Court and cannot be heard by the Pechersk Court.
The Prosecutor General’s Office denied the NABU’s accusations, calling them a “lie” and “unprofessional rhetoric.”
Other cases
The Zlochevsky case is not the first NABU investigation obstructed by the tainted Pechersk court.
On Dec. 14, the Pechersk court issued an order for Venediktova to transfer a bribery case against President Volodymyr Zelensky’s deputy chief of staff Oleh Tatarov from the NABU to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which is believed by civic watchdogs to be more politically pliant and less effective than the NABU. Venediktova’s deputy Oleksiy Symonenko used this as a pretext for giving the case to the SBU on Dec. 24.
Zelensky and Venediktova have been accused of protecting Tatarov from prosecution ever since information on the investigation into him first surfaced on Dec. 1.
The court also ordered that a graft case against controversial judge Pavlo Vovk be taken away from NABU in August and ruled to cancel the charges against him in October.
In June the Pechersk Court also ordered the closure of an embezzlement case against oligarch Oleg Bakhmayuk.
Meanwhile, the Verkhovna Rada is planning to consider a bill giving Venediktova the right to unilaterally take cases away from NABU without court approval, which could completely destroy the bureau’s independence.
Zlochevsky investigations
Zlochevsky was ecology minister under ex-President Viktor Yanukovych from 2012 to 2014. He has been investigated over the unlawful issuance of natural gas licenses to his own Burisma group when he was a minister.
In 2015 Zlochevsky was also charged with unlawful enrichment, and a tax evasion case was opened against him in 2016. The unlawful enrichment and tax evasion cases were closed in 2018 as then-President Petro Poroshenko and then Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko were accused of protecting the ex-minister. They denied the accusations.
Before the case was closed, journalist Olga Vasilevska published what she claimed to be photos of top Poroshenko ally and lawmaker Ihor Kononenko meeting in Vienna with Zlochevsky. Zlochevsky’s Burisma group has supplied natural gas to firms owned by Poroshenko and his top allies Kononenko and Oleh Gladkovsky, according to Radio Liberty’s Schemes investigative show.
Oleksandr Onyshchenko, a fugitive lawmaker charged with theft, claims that Zlochevsky paid about $80 million to Poroshenko to unfreeze Burisma’s assets in Ukraine. Poroshenko and Zlochevsky deny the claim.
In 2019, Zlochevsky was also charged with embezzlement and money laundering.
Trump impeachment
Zlochevsky’s Burisma group has also been at the center of a political battle between supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump and those of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden.
At the center of the accusations against Biden is a claim that he called for the firing of former Prosecutor General Shokin in order to protect Burisma, where Biden’s son Hunter served on the board of directors in 2014-2019 for $50,000 a month.
However, there is no evidence that Biden’s call for Shokin’s resignation intended to stop an investigation into Burisma. The campaign for Shokin’s dismissal was widespread and came as he obstructed reform and blocked key investigations.
Trump’s call for Ukrainian authorities to investigate Biden over Burisma was a key accusation in the impeachment of the president, which took place in December 2019. He was acquitted by the Senate in February 2020.
George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said during the impeachment hearings that he believes Ukrainian prosecutors accepted bribes to close an investigation against Zlochevsky.
In May the Pechersk Court, which has obstructed the Zlochevsky case and other key investigations, ordered prosecutors to open a case into Biden’s alleged unlawful interference into Shokin’s activities. This was seen by anti-corruption activists as an effort by corrupt actors in Ukraine to curry favor with Trump.
