You're reading: Ex-MP Martynenko, a key ally of Yatsenyuk, is under arrest

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine on April 20 arrested Mykola Martynenko, an ex-lawmaker from the People’s Front party, in a corruption case, the bureau’s spokeswoman Daria Manzhura told the Kyiv Post.

The former lawmaker is the highest-ranking Ukrainian political heavyweight to be arrested since State Fiscal Service Chief Roman Nasirov’s detention in March.

Martynenko, a top ally of former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, resigned from parliament in 2015 after he was targeted by several graft investigations.

He has denied accusations of corruption, while the People’s Front claimed on April 20 that the case was political and fabricated.

The bureau said it had served a notice of suspicion to Martynenko. He is accused of organized crime and embezzling funds during uranium ore sales to the state-owned Eastern Ore Dressing Plant, the bureau added.

Nazar Kholodnytsky, Ukraine’s chief anti-corruption prosecutor, said that Martynenko was suspected of embezzling $17 million.

The Ukrainska Pravda online newspaper reported in 2015 that Austria’s Steuermann Investitions was selling Kazakh uranium ore at a huge profit to the Eastern Ore Dressing Plant, which sells uranium to Ukraine’s state nuclear power monopoly Energoatom.

Ukrainska Pravda published documents showing that Steuermann’s owner, Wolfgang Eyberger, was a shareholder of Diamant Bank, which is co-owned by Martynenko’s business partner David Zhvania. The documents also demonstrate other links between Steuermann and the Martynenko-Zhvania business partnership.

Zhvania confirmed in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda that Steuermann was de facto controlled by Martynenko.

Ukrainian, Swiss and Czech authorities have also been investigating Martynenko on suspicions that he accepted 30 million Swiss francs from Czech engineering firm Skoda to give it a contract to supply equipment to Energoatom.

In another case, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau is investigating Martynenko over alleged corruption at the state-owned Odesa Portside Plant. Under the scheme, a firm called Antra supplied natural gas to the plant in exchange for ammonia and other fertilizers that are produced from the gas.

Investigators say that the plant effectively supplied fertilizers to Antra at below-market prices, which deprived it of revenues.