Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova and Kyiv’s controversial Pechersk District Court have united their efforts to block a corruption case against President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Deputy Chief of Staff Oleg Tatarov, according to anti-corruption activists.
Serhiy Vovk, a Pechersk Court judge, on Dec. 14 ordered Venediktova to transfer the case from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) to the State Investigation Bureau, an agency that lacks political independence and is expected to block it.
Meanwhile, the Prosecutor General’s Office has failed to authorize charges for Tatarov during the two weeks since Venediktova suddenly changed prosecutors in the case, the Anti-Corruption Action Center nonprofit said on Dec. 16. The previous prosecutors were planning to formally charge Tatarov, according to the watchdog and Kyiv Post sources, who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press.
The Verkhovna Rada is also planning to consider a bill giving Venediktova the right to unilaterally take cases away from NABU.
Taken together, the actions of Venediktova, Vovk and Verkhovna Rada may deliver yet another damaging blow to Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies.
The Prosecutor General’s Office and the Pechersk Court did not respond to requests for comment. Previously the Prosecutor General’s Office denied sabotaging the Tatarov case.
Venediktova has already faced accusations of sabotaging numerous high-profile criminal cases, including those against oligarch Oleg Bakhmatyuk, Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak, lawmakers Oleksandr Yurchenko and Pavlo Khalimon and Judge Pavlo Vovk, as well as those into oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky’s Privat group of companies and a coal pricing scheme that allegedly benefited oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.
Anti-corruption activists view the Tatarov case as the latest notch in her belt.
Tatarov is under investigation in a case linked to Maksym Mykytas, a former lawmaker and ex-president of state-owned construction firm Ukrbud. Mykytas has been charged with alleged embezzlement conducted through an Ukrbud housing development contract for Ukraine’s National Guard.
Investigators suspect that Tatarov, who used to serve as a lawyer for UkrBud, bribed forensic expert Kostyantyn Dubonos on behalf of Mykytas to get false evaluation results that helped the company.
Vovk controversy
Judge Vovk’s decision to transfer the Tatarov case from NABU to the State Investigation Bureau has triggered a public backlash.
Under Ukrainian law, the Pechersk Court has no right to rule on NABU cases, and the High Anti-Corruption Court has exclusive jurisdiction in such cases.
As a result, Vovk’s decision is unlawful and has no legal force until an appellate court rules on the case, the Anti-Corruption Action Center argued.
Serhiy Vovk also ordered that a graft case against another controversial judge, Pavlo Vovk (no relation), be taken away from NABU in August and ruled to cancel the charges against him in October. Another Pechersk Court judge, Vyacheslav Pidpaly, ordered the closure of an embezzlement case against oligarch Oleg Bakhmayuk in June.
It is not clear why three key decisions in the Vovk and Tatarov cases were made by the same judge, Serhiy Vovk. Under the automatic case distribution system, cases are supposed to be assigned to judges randomly. However, investigators have repeatedly uncovered unlawful interference in the system aimed at assigning cases to specific judges.
Civic activists and legal experts have also lambasted Serhiy Vovk, calling him a political tool of the authorities.
In 2012, Vovk sentenced then-opposition politician Yuriy Lutsenko to four years in jail in a graft case that has been recognized by European and Ukrainian authorities as politically motivated.
In 2019, Vovk also authorized searches and arrests in the case into the 2016 murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet. Critics of law enforcement’s investigation into Sheremet’s killing say that the evidence against the current suspects is weak. They describe the arrests as a publicity stunt for Zelensky and Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.
In 2015, Vovk was also charged with issuing an unlawful ruling in a separate civil case and was temporarily suspended.
Tatarov-Mykytas case
The Tatarov-Mykytas case, which Serhiy Vovk blocked, involves many influential powerbrokers. Mykytas has testified that he bribed ex-Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, ex-National Guard head Yuriy Allerov and Serhiy Moysak, a judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court, according to the censor.net news site. They all deny the accusations of wrongdoing.
On Dec. 1, NABU and anti-corruption prosecutors charged Mykytas with bribery, and he agreed to a plea bargain.
Mykytas’ accomplices, Olena Soloma and Alysa Grynchuk, also agreed to a plea bargain. On Nov. 16, Grynchuk was handed a 4-year suspended sentence as part of the plea bargain, while Soloma received a 3-year suspended sentence.
