The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on July 14 arrested a man who accused President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, of corruption.
The man, Dmytro Shtanko, has claimed that he participated in a scheme to sell government posts that was run by Yermak and his brother, Denys Yermak, in 2019. Both brothers denied the accusations.
Shtanko and his unnamed accomplice were arrested on fraud charges after he received $100,000 for helping unidentified persons get back their property that was seized by a law enforcement agency, according to the SBU. It is not clear if the case is linked to the Yermak brothers.
The SBU, Shtanko and Denys Yermak did not respond to requests for comment. Andriy Yermak’s press office declined to comment.
In March, Geo Leros, a lawmaker from Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, published videos that showed Andriy Yermak’s brother Denys considering candidates for government jobs and discussing receiving money from some of them.
In April, Shtanko and Serhii Shumsky, who claimed to be Denys Yermak’s partners in the alleged scheme, said in an interview with the Bihus.Info investigative journalism project that the chief of staff’s brother had received payments from candidates for state jobs. Shtanko also said that Andriy Yermak himself was implicated in the scheme and received money as well.
Previously, the Yermak brothers did not deny the authenticity of the videos, but Denys Yermak claimed they were taken out of context. Andriy Yermak also dismissed the accusations and lashed out at Leros, promising to sue him.
Zelensky supported Yermak and called Leros a fraud.
In June, Yermak proposed to ban publishing taped conversations of government officials, claiming that such leaks threaten national security.
Shtanko’s background
In May, Shumsky and Shtanko said that unknown individuals had burned Shtanko’s motorcycle and threw a hand grenade into Shumsky’s car. Both men connected the incidents to their interview with Bihus.Info, where they accused both Yermak brothers of graft.
Bihus.Info and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Schemes investigative show previously identified Shtanko as the person who filmed the leaked videos of Denys Yermak discussing appointments to state jobs. Shtanko’s face appears on screen in a way that suggests he is behind the camera.
However, in his interview with Bihus.Info, he denied being the cameraman.
Shumsky and Shtanko said they fell out with Denys Yermak when the candidates who paid for government jobs did not receive the jobs and Yermak started ignoring them.
The two men also confirmed meetings in which Denys Yermak discussed cracking down on the business of Danish logistics company MAERSK and Ukrainian logistics firm TIS.
In the videos, Yermak says that he needs to do this to advance the interests of KTL Ukraine, a local subsidiary of Turkish logistics company Kinay. KTL Ukraine denied cooperating with Yermak in the alleged scheme.
“The Turks are ready to pay us $300,000 or 300,000 euros every month,” a person identified by Bihus.info as Shumsky said in the videos.
Case stalled
In April, Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytsky’s office transferred the corruption case against Denys Yermak from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) to the police.
The move prompted whistleblower Leros to allege that Kholodnytsky was trying to bury the case. Kholodnytsky’s office declined to comment on why the case had been transferred and the accusations of sabotage.
Of all Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies, NABU is seen as the most independent. Anti-graft activists view Kholodnytsky and Interior Minister Arsen Avakov’s police as more politicized and susceptible to corruption.
However, in June, NABU opened two abuse of power and bribery cases against the Yermak brothers after the High Anti-Corruption Court ordered the bureau to do so.
