Editor’s Note: The following top prosecutors have been accused of corruption, sabotaging investigations and fabricating political cases. However, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has so far fired only one of them, Lyudmila Yerkhova.
Lutsenko’s failure to fire top prosecutors Yuriy Stolyarchuk, Roman Hovda and Dmytro Sus and to prosecute Yerkhova, the prosecution service’s ex-chief accountant, shows that “he is acting not as a prosecutor general who’s reforming the system but as a politician who gets as many as possible PR stunts out of this agency,” Vitaly Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s executive board, told the Kyiv Post.
“Lutsenko is a good politician but a bad prosecutor,” he added. Lutsenko has denied the accusations.
Yury Stolyarchuk
Deputy Prosecutor General Yury Stolyarchuk, who is responsible for all investigations at the Prosecutor General’s Office, has been accused of sabotaging high-profile graft cases against ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s allies and incumbent officials.
In January, a court closed a graft case against ex-lawmaker Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, a top Yanukovych associate, citing Stolyarchuk’s inaction. Stolyarchuk, a key ally of ex-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, also supervised criminal cases against the investigators who charged his fellow top prosecutors Oleksandr Korniyets and Volodymyr Shapakin with bribery. Stolyarchuk has denied accusations of sabotage.
Lutsenko’s reaction: he said earlier this month that he would replace Stolyarchuk when he found a stronger candidate.
Roman Hovda
Roman Hovda, the chief prosecutor of Kyiv, has been accused of supervising political cases on behalf of President Petro Poroshenko’s allies, lawmakers Ihor Kononenko and Oleksandr Hranovsky and helping Korniyets and Shapakin.
Hovda, a Shokin ally, has also been lambasted for supervising the Interior Ministry’s activities during crackdowns on EuroMaidan protesters in 2013-2014, cracking down on businesses, and closing a case against Stanyslav Tolstosheyev, a wealthy young man who killed a woman with his car in January. Hovda did not respond to a request for comment.
Lutsenko’s reaction: he asked Hovda to step down as a deputy prosecutor general in May but then gave him the equally important job of Kyiv’s top prosecutor, which some saw as a deception.
Kostyantyn Kulik
Kostyantyn Kulik, chief prosecutor of the war zone, has been charged with unlawful enrichment of Hr 2 million ($80,000). Kulik, who owns luxury cars and expensive real estate, has denied accusations of corruption.
Lutsenko’s reaction: he said he would not protect Kulik but praised him, saying he was necessary for high-profile cases. Kulik is still working thanks to a court ruling against his suspension.
Maxim Yakubovsky
Maxim Yakubovsky, the chief military prosecutor of Ukraine’s southern district, has been slammed for owning luxury property, which he claims he acquired with money he had earned as a lawyer. He also has links to pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk.
Lutsenko’s reaction: he gave him a medal in July.
Dmytro Sus
Dmytro Sus is a deputy head of a prosecutorial unit accused of fabricating political cases on behalf of Kononenko and Hranovsky.
Sus has been accused of torturing employees of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, which was conducting surveillance over him in a graft case, and he has admitted that he drives a luxury Audi Q7 car. He has denied the accusations of torture, saying anti-graft bureau agents beat him up.
He has also been accused of protecting Korniyets and Shapakin and defending Poroshenko’s interests in a case involving oil and gas firm Naftogazvydobuvannya. Moreover, Sus has helped to unfreeze ex-Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky’s assets by failing to dispute a motion in favor of the ex-official.
Lutsenko’s reaction: he resisted pressure to suspend or fire Sus since taking office and praised him but finally caved in to the demands to suspend Sus earlier this month, preferring not to fire him, however.
Ivan Dzyuba
Ivan Dzyuba, head of the internal security unit, is a Shokin loyalist. He has opened numerous probes against the team of ex-deputy prosecutor generals Vitaly Kasko and Davit Sakvarelidze, as a result of which they were suspended. Sakvarelidze and Kasko see the probes as revenge for their team’s efforts to investigate corrupt prosecutors. Dzyuba did not respond to a request for comment.
Lutsenko’s reaction: None.
Maxim Melnychenko
Maxim Melnychenko, head of the Inspectorate General, is a Shokin protégé. Sakvarelidze and Kasko say he was blocking the bribery case against Korniyets and Shapakin. Melnychenko is also subject to the lustration law, which requires the firing of top officials who served under Yanukovych. Melnychenko did not respond to a request for comment.
Lutsenko’s reaction: a new Inspectorate General will be created, though it is not clear whether Melnychenko will head it.
Lyudmila Yerkhova
Lyudmila Yerkhova, the chief accountant of the Prosecutor General’s Office, has signed documents related to a suspected Hr 69 million ($2.8 million) embezzlement scheme, according to investigative journalists. Her common-law husband owns a luxury mansion in Kyiv Oblast, the Nashi Hroshi watchdog reported on Sept. 14. Yerkhova is also subject to lustration, but escaped it in 2014 by getting a war participant card without fighting on the war front. She denies the accusations.
Lutsenko’s reaction: he started a probe against Yerkhova and then allowed her to voluntarily retire earlier this month. However, the probe found no violations, which was seen by Lutsenko’s critics as his effort to help her escape prosecution.
Yuriy Sevruk
Yuriy Sevruk, a deputy head of the Prosecutorial Academy, is a Shokin ally. Sevruk has been accused of blocking prosecutorial reform and suspended reformers who investigated prosecutors’ corruption. He has denied the accusations.
Lutsenko’s reaction: he said in June that Sevruk had resigned as a deputy prosecutor general. But, according to Andriy Slyusar, Sevruk technically remains a deputy of Lutsenko and may resume his duties at any moment.
Serhiy Kostenko
Serhiy Kostenko, a prosecutor from Mykolayiv Oblast and a member of the Qualification and Discipline Commission at the prosecutor’s office, is an ally of ex-Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka’s son Artem, according to Sergei Hadzhynov, an activist of the AutoMaidan car-based protest group.
AutoMaidan activists and investigative journalists have accused Kostenko of seizing businesses, extorting money for Artem Pshonka, and owning two luxury houses. He denies the accusations.
Lutsenko’s reaction: None.
Oleh Valendyuk
Oleh Valendyuk, the first deputy chief prosecutor of Crimea, is subject to the lustration law and received a bonus from Pshonka for cracking down on EuroMaidan protesters in 2014. Valendyuk, an ally of Hranovsky, has previously cited a controversial court ruling that exempted him from lustration but did not respond to a request for comment.
Lutsenko’s reaction: he asked him to swap his job as Kyiv’s chief prosecutor for a job at the prosecutor’s office of Crimea but refused to fire him. Asked why Lutsenko is ignoring the lustration law, his spokeswoman Larysa Sargan said Valendyuk keeps working because “we need results.”
Serhiy Lysenko
Serhiy Lysenko, an ex-deputy chief prosecutor of Kyiv’s Dnipro district, was fired last year after threatening to beat up a defendant. A court ruled to reinstate him in April, but it is not clear whether he has been actually re-hired.
Lysenko is an ally of Hranovsky and has been photographed meeting with him. He works as an informal liaison between Hranovsky and the Prosecutor General’s Office, several sources have told the Kyiv Post. Lysenko could not be reached for comment.
Lutsenko’s reaction: He has so far done nothing to restrict Hranovsky’s influence on the prosecutor’s office.
