President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sept. 1 appointed a key suspect in a high-profile corruption case as a member of the commission for Euro-Atlantic integration, according to a presidential decree. The information was published by Ukrainian media on Sept. 4.
The appointee is State Judicial Administration Chief Zenovy Kholodnyuk, who has been charged in a major corruption case along with some of Ukraine’s most notorious judges, including Pavlo Vovk. Kholodnyuk was charged by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine with organized crime and bribery.
The judges and officials involved in the Vovk case are accused of obstructing justice, organized crime, and bribery. Kholodnyuk and the judges deny the accusations of wrongdoing.
Law enforcement has faced accusations of sabotaging the case due to the political connections of Vovk, the head of the Kyiv Administrative District Court. On Sept. 1, the NABU published recordings implicating members of the High Council of Justice in Vovk’s schemes, while the council refused to suspend Vovk and the other judges on the same day.
“It’s a quid pro quo in action,” Halia Chyzhyk, a judicial expert at the Anti-Corruption Action Center, wrote on Facebook about Kholodnyuk’s appointment and evidence that he was involved in corruption. “I’m wondering what was the size of the bribe that Kholodnyuk gave (for the appointment).”
The President’s Office and Kholodnyuk’s press office did not respond to requests for comment.
In August the High Anti-Corruption Court released Kholodnyuk without bail, triggering indignation among civil society.
Kholodnyuk’s State Judicial Administration is responsible for handling organizational and financial issues to support the court system’s functioning.
Kholodnyuk’s biography
Kholodnyuk has held his job since 2014. He must have been fired under the 2014 lustration law on the dismissal of officials who served ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. Kholodnyuk was a deputy head of the State Judicial Administration during the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, and the lustration law directly bans those who held this job then.
However, Kholodnyuk managed to escape lustration. Moreover, he kept his job even when his term expired in 2019.
In February 2019 a competition commission appointed Serhiy Pushkar as head of the State Judicial Administration to replace Kholodnyuk.
Kholodnyuk filed a lawsuit seeking to cancel the appointment. In March 2019 Volodymyr Keleberda, a judge of the Kyiv District Administrative Court, issued a ruling that suspended Pushkar’s appointment until Kholodnyuk’s lawsuit is considered.
As a result, Kholodnyuk is still keeping his job, and the court has not even considered his lawsuit for one and a half years.
Quid pro quo
In tapes released by the NABU, Vovk discussed “a quid pro quo” with Kholodnyuk in February to March 2019. He would help Kholodnyuk keep his job in exchange for Kholodnyuk appointing a member of the High Qualification Commission of Judges loyal to Vovk.
As part of the deal, Kholodnyuk appointed Serhiy Ostapets as a member of the High Qualification Commission in May 2019. Ostapets, who was also charged in the case, could not be reached for comment, and the commission did not respond to a request for comment.
“Zenovy will have to do something so it can be solved politically as a quid pro quo,” Vovk said. “(Kholodnyuk) is helping us so I don’t see any point in rejecting his offer.”
“Pasha, I’m sticking to you,” Ostapets told Vovk in the tapes. “I’ll stick to you and ask you to help me.”
Vovk reassured him that he should apply for the job.
The recordings also show Vovk giving instructions to Keleberda on how to issue a ruling in favor of Kholodnyuk.
“I cannot forbid anyone to mention my name in private conversations but at the same time I am not responsible for the content of these conversations,” Kholodnyuk told the Kyiv Post. “I know Pavlo Vovk in person, but I have never talked with him about holding a public competition for High Qualification Commission of Judges members.”
Kholodnyuk also argued that it was not him personally but a competition commission appointed by him that chose one of the members of the High Qualification Commission – an apparent reference to Ostapets.
Bribery
Vovk also says in the tapes that Kholodnyuk must give bribes for a court ruling in his favor and its enforcement.
Specifically, he said Kholodnyuk must pay for the enforcement of the ruling by the Justice Ministry’s bailiff service.
“Our lawyers received everything – we’ve done everything we promised,” Vovk said in the tapes. “Valik has good contacts but he will also tell you to give him a couple of kopecks. Everyone must be given something.”
He said that Andriy Dovbenko, a controversial lawyer accused of running shady schemes at the Justice Ministry, may help with the enforcement of the ruling.
According to a 2017 investigation by the Bihus.info journalism project, Dobvenko has become the gray cardinal behind the Justice Ministry. Specifically, proteges of Dovbenko have been appointed to many key jobs at the Justice Ministry, including in the bailiff service.
Zelensky’s former chief of staff, Andriy Bohdan, attended the wedding of Dovbenko in the French resort of Saint Tropez, according to an investigation released by Bihus.info on Sept. 9, 2019. Dovbenko did not respond to a request for comment, and Bohdan declined to comment.
Vovk case sabotaged
In August 2019, the Prosecutor General’s Office charged Vovk and other judges of his court with obstructing the work of the High Qualification Commission of Judges, issuing unlawful rulings and unlawfully interfering in the work of other judges.
However, Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky Court rejected a motion to extend the Vovk investigation and ordered prosecutors to either close the case against the judges or send it to trial within five days. The prosecutors did not send it to trial, and the case stalled indefinitely after that.
In July 2020, the NABU resurrected the case and charged Vovk and other judges of his court with organized crime, usurpation of power, bribery and unlawful interference with government officials.
Serhiy Vovk, Pavlo Vovk’s namesake and a notorious judge at Kyiv’s Pechersk Court, on Aug. 4 ordered the case to be transferred from the NABU to another body. Anti-corruption activists interpret this as an effort to kill the case since the State Investigation Bureau, Security Service of Ukraine and the police, which may get the case, are politically dependent and are likely to bury the case.
