The National Police on Dec. 29 charged Maksym Mykytas with kidnapping in what his lawyer believes to be an attempt to pressure the former lawmaker due to his testimony against President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Deputy Chief of Staff Oleh Tatarov.
Mykytas, ex-president of state-owned construction firm Ukrbud, was previously charged with alleged embezzlement conducted through an Ukrbud housing development contract for Ukraine’s National Guard in 2016-2017.
Mykytas agreed to a plea bargain and testified against other high-level participants in the scheme, including Tatarov. As a result, Tatarov, who formerly worked as a lawyer for Ukrbud, was charged on Dec. 18 with bribing forensic expert Kostyantyn Dubonos on behalf of Mykytas to get false evaluation results that helped the company.
Tatarov denies the accusations.
Zelensky and his protege, Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, have been accused of protecting Tatarov from prosecution ever since information on the investigation into him first surfaced on Dec. 1. Tatarov is among numerous influential suspects whose cases appear to be blocked by Venediktova’s office.
The police did not respond to requests for comment. Earlier, Venediktova denied any wrongdoing. Zelensky said on Dec. 25 that Tatarov must prove his innocence, but added that he would only fire Tatarov if the deputy chief of staff was involved in corruption recently, while working for him.
The police said on Dec. 29 that Mykytas, who is under house arrest, allegedly organized the kidnapping of an unidentified man on Dec. 8.
Several kidnappers who allegedly received orders from Mykytas met the man, broke into his car and forced him to write a promissory note for $800,000 using threats, according to the police.
Several hours later, the police arrested the alleged kidnappers and released the alleged victim. They were charged with kidnapping, extortion, hijacking and organized crime.
Mykytas’ lawyer, Artur Gabriyelyan, accused the police of trying to pressure his client.
“(Tatarov) is using the police investigators that he controls to take revenge and put pressure on Mykytas to make him withdraw his testimony,” he said.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), which opened the case over the Ukrbud contract, said it “does not have information on the evidence that was used to bring (kidnapping) charges against (Mykytas).”
“(Mykytas) is a whistleblower who gave the NABU information on top-level corruption,” the bureau said. “Based on one of the facts, charges were brought against a presidential deputy chief of staff (Tatarov)… These developments are concerning, given the possibility of using criminal proceedings to block NABU investigations and putting illegal pressure on the whistleblower to help the people he exposed evade criminal responsibility.”
The Tatarov case has faced continued sabotage by prosecutors and courts.
On Dec. 1, Venediktova replaced the group of prosecutors in the Tatarov case as they were preparing to bring charges against the deputy chief of staff and going to a court to apply for his arrest. As a result, the charges were blocked.
Later, the NABU opened a criminal case into what it believes to be Venediktova’s unlawful interference in the Tatarov case by replacing prosecutors without proper legal grounds.
On Dec. 14, Serhiy Vovk, a judge at Kyiv’s Pechersk Court, ordered Venedikova to transfer the case from the NABU to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which is believed by civic watchdogs to be more politically dependent 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.
The NABU and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) believe the transfer of the Tatarov case to be unlawful.
Under Ukrainian law, the Tatarov bribery case falls directly into NABU’s jurisdiction, and NABU cases cannot be considered by other law enforcement agencies. Disputes on NABU’s jurisdiction can only be considered by the High Anti-Corruption Court and cannot be heard by the Pechersk Court.
