Director of the National Anti-Corruption Agency of Ukraine (NABU) Artem Sytnyk has said cases involving illegal amber mining and possible corruption at the State Migration Service of Ukraine were conducted by the NABU in cooperation with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
“I think it’s a little strange for the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) to say the ‘amber case’ is “ideal” when the same means, resources and methods were used [for another case] in cooperation with the FBI. To be honest, it’s unpleasant to hear messages from our American colleagues about what happened in the past few days,” Sytnyk said on Dec.1 during a briefing in Kyiv. He added there are many ambitious agents working at NABU.
Ukraine’s State Migration Service (SMS) earlier reported the arrest of a NABU agent during an attempt to give a bribe to SMS deputy head Dina Pimakhova.
“For several months the NABU agent, the son of an ex-Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Party of Regions Yuriy Boyarsky, fulfilling the illegal directives of some NABU officials, attempted to provoke Pimakhova, offering her large sums of money in return for illegal decisions on legalizing citizens of Vietnam and Iran in Ukraine who didn’t even exist,” the SMS’ press service said.
PGO chief Yuriy Lutsenko on Nov.30 said the NABU agent would be served a notice of suspicion, adding that no one would be arrested. Prosecutors are expected to interrogate a minimum of two high-ranking NABU officers on Dec.4.
