The Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigations has registered a statement by former Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin alleging that National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) officials disclosed secret information pertaining to a pretrial investigation and leaked his personal data to officials of the U.S. Embassy to Ukraine.
Interfax-Ukraine has learned from law enforcement sources that Shokin submitted the statement based on allegations made on October 9 by parliamentarian Andriy Derkach concerning the U.S. Embassy’s pressure on Ukrainian law enforcement agencies to meddle in the election process in the U.S.
Shokin insisted that NABU had illegally obtained his personal card from the State Migration Service and illegally passed it to the U.S. Embassy, which, as he assumed, was done to enable ex-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to pressure him.
“This data was disclosed on purpose, with the aim of their further use through putting pressure on me by United States Vice President Joe Biden by circulating the said mendacious private information about me out of a dislike that he developed toward me over my performance of duties as Ukrainian prosecutor general, related to the investigation by the Prosecutor General’s Office’s Main Investigative Department of a criminal case against former Ukrainian Environment Minister Mykola Zlochevsky and into activities of the company Burisma Holding Limited (Cyprus), whose co-founders included, in particular, his son Hunter Biden,” Shokin said in his statement.
Shokin asked the State Bureau of Investigations to start a pretrial criminal inquiry into his statement.
“I ask for entering information on the commission of a crime by NABU officials into the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations, namely on the violation of privacy, liability for which is stipulated by Ukrainian Criminal Code Article 182, Part 1. I ask for immediately starting a pretrial investigation and issuing written instructions to investigators from the State Bureau of Investigations. I also ask for designating me as an aggrieved party in a criminal case,” Shokin said in his statement.
As reported before, Derkach on October 9 published official correspondence between NABU and the U.S. Embassy, revealing that NABU First Deputy Chairman Gizo Uglava supplied the Embassy with information via his aide Polina Chyzh, which negatively affected events in Ukraine and in the U.S.
Derkach also publicized documents according to which Burisma paid at least $16.5 million to Hunter Biden, Aleksander Kwasniewski, Alan Apter and Devon Archer.
Derkach said Shokin had repeatedly addressed NABU Director Artem Sytnyk on the criminal investigation involving Burisma but regularly received purely formal and empty replies. Derkach suggested that Shokin’s activities openly angered Joe Biden, and his fifth visit to Kyiv over two years on December 7-8, 2015 dealt with Shokin’s dismissal over the investigations of Zlochevsky and Burisma.
