Ukraine Supreme Court chief detained in $2.7m graft probe
Hello Deep Dives platform! It's been a good week and new Ukrainian military counteroffensive operations in Russian held Ukraine.
Just few days ago, I posted on this platform the role the Ukrainian government is playing to tackle corruption and other graft issues in the Eastern European country.
Ukrainian law enforcement has detained the head of the country’s Supreme Court in a $2.7m bribery inquiry, as Kyiv pursues anti-graft measures required for closer integration with the European Union.
“The head of the Supreme Court has been detained,” Oleksandr Omelchenko, a prosecutor with Ukraine’s Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), told reporters in Kyiv.
The anti-corruption chief describes this case as the biggest involving a judiciary in Ukraine, although the case has a second of which the head of supreme court refused to mention the second person.
Kryvonos likened a group of judges within the Supreme Court who were implicated in the probe to a “criminal group”.
To make this investigation substantive, some photographs of money (dollars) neatly arranged in the sofa in the house of the accused. This shows how corrupt the Ukrainian judiciary has become and sweeping the sector gives more hope to the common man who seek for justice on a daily basis.
Omelchenko said a “formal notice of suspension” had not yet been served against the unnamed individual.
“You see that we are showing through real cases, real deeds, what our priority is: it’s top corruption, it’s criminal organisation at the highest levels of power,” NABU’s Kryvonos told reporters.
There has been several attempts by Ukrainian billionaire Kostiantyn Zhevago to bribe members of the judiciary with a law firm acting as an intermediary. This looks very serious and shouldn't be taken for granted.
Zhevago allegedly transferred $2.7m to the lawyers, of which $1.8m was to be paid to Supreme Court justices, and $900,000 to lawyers for their “services as intermediaries”, Reuters reported.
The bribe is in respect to Zhevago's plan to pervert justice to his favor to keep control of the shares of a mining company that is at the centre of a dispute with former shareholders.
The Ukrainian anti-graft agency is trying to bring Zhevago back to Ukraine in order to face charges. Zhevago is currently in France seeking asylum.
Zhevago is a former member of the Ukrainian parliament and one of the richest man in Ukraine.
In conclusion, dealing with issues such as this gives Ukraine the chances to prove how it can go to eliminate corruption out of the war torn country. I think this is the right step towards the right path and other nations suffering from cord issues should enforce anti-corruption laws and bring to book irrespective of the individuals societal status.
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/16/large-scale-corruption-in-ukraines-supreme-court-prosecutors
- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65610985
- https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/head-ukraines-supreme-court-detained-anti-corruption-prosecutor-2023-05-16/
- https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-detains-supreme-court-head-in-corruption-probe/a-65647232