Transparency International once named former President Viktor Yanukovych as one of the world’s 15 most corrupt officials. While he’s gone, the international watchdog’s Corruption Perception Index for 2014 ranked Ukraine at 142 out of 175, meaning there were only 33 countries more corrupt.Ukraine has shown little progress in fighting corruption or punishing lawbreakers this year. The Kyiv Post has picked out the most scandalous cases of the year:
Prosecutor general fired
President Petro Poroshenko fired former Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema and his deputy Anatoly Danylenko in February for lack of progress in high-profile criminal cases against Yanukovych and his allies. Yarema also came under fire for alleged corruption and nepotism in his office.
Speaking at a briefing in mid-January, Yarema said he was “not afraid” of being dismissed. “I try to do my job and I’m ready to report to parliament about what we’ve done,” he said on Jan. 16. His deputy Danylenko was linked to another scandal after journalists discovered that he had illegally privatized 140 hectares of ponds near the villages of Mala Soltanivka and Velika Soltanivka in Kyiv Oblast. Days before their dismissals, Yarema said the accusations against Danylenko were false.
‘Diamond prosecutors’
Two high-ranking prosecutors — Oleksandr Korniets and Volodymyr Shapakin — were suspected of taking a Hr 3.15 million bribe and were found to be in the possession of diamonds after an unprecedented raid on prosecutors’ offices and homes. The July 5 operation was coordinated by Georgian Deputy Prosecutor General Davit Sakvarelidze. The suspects were then both released on bail.
Public uproar followed when Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin and his former deputies, Volodymyr Huzyr and Yury Stolyarchuk, tried to cover up for Korniyets and Shapakin. Mustafa Nayyem and Serhiy Leshchenko, lawmakers from the Bloc of President Petro Poroshenko, said that the three top prosecutors had been pressuring Sakvarelidze and deputy prosecutor general Vitaly Kasko to halt the corruption cases. Shokin denies charges.
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt praised prosecutors Sakvarelidze and Vitaliy Kasko for working to “investigate and prosecute corrupt individuals within the prosecutor general’s office.”
“Kasko’s comments … that he and other reformers within the prosecutor’s office are under intense pressure, are very worrisome – it’s a sign that a battle between Old Ukraine and New Ukraine is raging within this critical institution,” Pyatt said at the time.
On Dec. 23, Sakvarelidze said that “diamond prosecutors” case would go to court soon.
Yatsenyuk ally accused
Mykola Martynenko, a former deputy head of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front party, is suspected of accepting $29 million in bribes from Czech-based engineering firm Skoda in exchange for a contract to supply equipment to Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power plant operator. According to Swiss prosecutors, the money for the contract was paid in the form of commission fees to offshore company Bradcrest Investment. Martynenko denies all of the accusations and asked parliament to strip him of his lawmaker status (including his immunity from prosecution) on Dec. 22. A majority of 228 votes agreed.
“I took this decision because I don’t want to allow there to be the political destabilization and dissolution of the pro-Western government,” Martynenko said in parliament on Dec. 22. “The campaign to discredit (me) cost over $10 million. Sooner or later we’ll find out the names of organizers of this campaign.”
Officials arrested
Serhiy Bochkovsky, a former head of the State Service for Emergency Situations, and his first deputy Vasyl Stoietsky were detained on suspicion of abuse of power and graft on March 25. They were accused of organizing illegal schemes to buy fuel from private companies at excessive prices. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said they were suspected of diverting money to a Jersey-based offshore company in a corrupt scheme. Bochkovsky was released on Hr 1.2 million ($52,170) bail on April 1. In an interview with the Glavcom news website on May 25, Bochkovsky said he “never took any money from anyone.” The arrest was broadcast live during a cabinet meeting – making it look more like a show than a real anti-corruption bust.
A Kyiv court will hear Bochkovsky’s case on Jan. 14.
Hr 622,000 bribe?
Yaroslav Kashuba, a former chief of the State Employment Service, was arrested in Kyiv in a sting operation on Sept. 11, during which he was allegedly caught red-handed taking a bribe. The transaction took place in an official car, and the alleged bribe amounted to Hr 622,000 ($28,502). Law enforcers also found a large amount of cash and a hunting rifle with cartridges in Kashuba’s car. He was set free on bail of Hr 1.8 million ($82,500).
Ukraine’s Minister for Social Policy Pavlo Rozenko, who appointed Kashuba in February to run the State Employment Service, said after Kashuba’s arrest that it was a “worrisome signal for the State Employment Service.” Later the minister launched an anti-corruption operation, and sacked all the heads of the service’s central and regional offices.
