Ukrainian prosecutors met with fugitive ex-Energy Minister Eduard Stavytsky in 2016 in Israel to negotiate the charges against him, according to an audio recording of the meeting leaked to Slidstvo.Info investigative news outlet and published on June 9.
The recording implies that the investigators could have conspired with the ex-minister, who is wanted for embezzlement since 2014, in a backroom deal to soften the charges against him.
In the leaked audio, the officials were negotiating a possible change of charges for Stavytsky. They warned him that some charges could result in a confiscation of his assets, a move seemingly aimed at helping him keep his assets.
The journalists behind the report argued that the secret negotiations might explain why the prosecutors sent Stavytsky’s case to court only this May, four years after they opened it.
The Prosecutor General’s Office responded on June 11 that the meeting was an official negotiation and that the case against Stavytsky went to court with the initial charges: embezzlement, money laundering, and fraud.
Stavytsky is one of many top officials of Yanukovych who Ukrainian authorities charged following the ex-president’s escape in 2014. However, the authorities failed to actually prosecute any of the top representatives of the regime they say stole at least $40 billion from the state budget during their four-year rule.
A documentary by Slidstvo.Info investigative news outlet looks into how fugitive former top officials, including ex-Energy Minister Eduard Stavytsky and ex-Finance Minister Yuriy Kolobov, try to get the charges against them dropped in Ukraine. (Slidstvo.Info)
The leaked audio is from a November 2016 meeting in a Tel Aviv hotel between Stavytsky, his lawyers, and two deputies of Prosecutor General of Ukraine: Eugene Enin and Anzhela Stryzhevska, both still in office. A local rabbi was present at the meeting – the journalists assume he was serving as a mediator.
Enin and Stryzhevsha say on the tape that Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko authorized them to negotiate with Stavytsky.
Enin confirmed in a comment to the Kyiv Post that the meeting did take place – but said it was an official negotiation. One of Stavytsky lawyers, however, says on the tape that the meeting is “informal.”
“It was an official meeting,” Enin told the Kyiv Post on June 11. “The fact that one of the sides thinks it was unofficial doesn’t matter.”
Deputies of Prosecutor General of Ukraine Anzhela Stryzhevska and Eugene Enin comment on the leaked audio of their meeting with ex-Energy Minister Eduard Stavytsky in the video published by General Prosecutor’s Office website on June 11. (Courtesy) (General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine)
In an official statement released later on June 11, Enin and Stryzhevska denied the informal or secret character of the meeting, saying it was initiated by Stavytsky.
However, in an interview with Slidstvo.Info that aired with the leaked audio, Enin — who did not yet know that the journalists have the leaked recording — said that negotiations of a plea deal usually take place in a neutral place like a consulate. In the same interview, he refused to say whether he had a meeting with Stavytsky.
On the tape, Enin and Stryzhevska discuss with Stavytsky and his lawyers the possibility of changing the charges against the ex-minister. One of the lawyers asks to make the case say that Stavytsky acted inadvertently and, therefore, didn’t commit a crime. However, he does not receive a response to this suggestion.
Stryzhevska is heard saying that Stavytsky could be convicted in absentia, which will be bad for Stavytsky and have “political” consequences for him, so it would be better to reach a deal. They never specify what kind of deal the prosecution wants.
The recording ends abruptly, only capturing a part of the conversation.
Slidstvo.Info has not revealed the source who leaked the audio, but said they checked the file to make sure it wasn’t altered. To support the story, they also published smartphone footage showing Stavytsky, Stryzhevska, and Enin entering a hotel lobby in Tel Aviv.
The journalists released another tape, an audio recording of a call between a man sounding like Stavytsky and an unidentified mediator, whom he refers to as “Kolya.” They discuss the future meeting with Stryzhevska, and “Kolya” says he will bring and offer her “two hundred” – presumably a bribe of $200,000. The man who sounds like Stavytsky approves the plan.
Beyond the official statement denying any under-the-table deals, Stryzhevska declined to comment on the matter.
Stavytsky is accused of helping Yanukovych fraudulently obtain ownership of Mezhyhirya, a formerly state-owned 136-hectare area some 10 kilometers north of Kyiv, which Yanukovych turned into an opulent private residence that has since been opened for the public.
Soon after Yanukovych fled the country in 2014, the prosecutors searched his property and discovered 50 kilograms of gold in bars and jewels worth millions of dollars.
