Ukraine’s Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) has denied charges made by the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) that it is sabotaging the investigation into corruption at Ukraine’s Ukroboronprom state concern, specifically that it had demanded erasing the name of (ex-First Deputy National Security and Defense Council Speaker Oleh) Hladkovsky in investigation documents, SAPO’s press service has said in a statement.
The statement says SAPO prosecutors approved 50 searches at properties belonging to Hladkovsky, Ukroboronprom officials and defense enterprises involved in the investigation, adding that it did so even though it was unlikely that data relevant to criminal proceedings would be found.
SAPO said it had taken all procedural measures to ensure that NABU detectives have access to the materials of the investigation and refuted allegations that SAPO ordered the removal of individual surnames from the case materials.
As reported, in a video uploaded to the Internet on February 25, investigative journalists from Bihus.info said during 2018 they received an anonymous letter with an electronic archive of correspondence between participants in corrupt deals to supply spare parts to Ukroboronprom. The journalists checked the information and concluded the leaked information was genuine.
The third series of journalists’ probe was aired by the Nashi Hroshi program on March 4. It presented materials alleging Hladkovsky and ex-head of the state-run Ukrspecexport Pavlo Bukin were allegedly paid at least $30,000 and $10,000, respectively when purchasing Russian-made altimeters for repairing Kazakhstan’s An-26 planes in Ukraine.
