Anti-corruption agencies halt secret investigation into ‘salaries in envelopes’ for ruling party MPs
An NV investigation released on December 31st shows that he National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) have sent mixed comments on the existence of criminal cases related to “envelope salaries” for Servant of the People party MPs.
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The long-form investigation can be found on the Ukrainian-language NV site.
NABU refused to explain the fate of the testimony and materials provided by MP Anton Polyakov, who died in October 2021, and his colleague Hanna Skorokhod, saying only that “no written statements from them were received” and that they were not currently investigating any cases related to it as of December 2023.
However, it is known from open sources that at least one case was indeed opened at NABU. Oleksiy Honcharenko of the opposition party European Solidarity received confirmation in 2019 that the Bureau was investigating a case related to the possible receipt of undue benefits by members of the Servant of the People (No. 52019000000001034).
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A former NABU official familiar said that detectives and SAPO prosecutors conducted covert investigative actions and gathered evidence on illegal “envelope” payments over several years.
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“Everyone already knew about these payments. If it weren’t for the full-scale invasion, we would have received definitive confirmation,” said the former Bureau official.
SAPO did not deny investigating “envelope salaries” but referred to this information as “classified.”
“According to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, pre-trial investigation information can only be disclosed with the written permission of the investigator or prosecutor and to the extent they deem possible. Given the above, providing the requested information is impossible,” SAP responded to NV’s inquiry.
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NV was able to find out from an influential SAPO employee that prosecutors and detectives were conducting undercover investigations against representatives of the ruling party, but stopped these activities after Feb. 24, when “the payments stopped.”
Prosecutors and detectives conducted covert investigative actions regarding Servant of the People MPs but halted this activity after Feb. 24, 2022, as “payments ceased,” according to an influential SAPO employee.
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