Verkhovna Rada deputies are divided into two political castes: those who make decisions and those tasked with implementing them. The former are known even to housewives and parking lot guards from political talk shows, while the latter often remain in the shadows. Yet it is precisely there that the most flamboyant political crooks, operating on the edge of fraud, are found.
$1,5 for Kodola "in American hardcover"
One such figure is Oleksandr Kodola, who represents the Chernihiv region and is a member of the People's Front. He first gained notoriety after his public Viber correspondence with MP Deidei, which became a hit among parliamentary journalists and deputies. On February 6, 2015, during Prosecutor General Yarema's report to the Verkhovna Rada, MP Deidei promised Kodola $1500 for asking the head of the Prosecutor General's Office a question. The Viber message was so convoluted that it deserves a separate quote.
"Please tell the general about the Pechersk-Odesa prosecutor. What we discussed. I have 1,5 thanks for you in a hardcover American edition, and a personal thank you," Deidei Kodola wrote. Clearly, Kodola was a fan of the "hardcover American edition," as he fully complied with the request, asking Yarema the required question. The question concerned Oleksandr Kuzmenko, the former first deputy prosecutor of Kyiv's Pechersk district and current prosecutor of Odesa's Primorsky district. Certain criminal circles sought to "cleanse" this principled law enforcement officer, installing their own protégé in his place.
Caught red-handed, Kodola had no choice but to dismiss the information as a provocation. He claimed modern technology made it possible to turn a fly into a mince pear, as well as into collages of his Viber messages.
Continuing to justify himself and drive himself ever deeper into a corner, Kodola claimed that it was impossible to photograph his workstation in the Rada. This is despite the fact that practically the entire hall is within sight of the press box. Kodola's most compelling argument was that he allegedly doesn't use high-end iPhones, preferring budget Samsung and Nokia models.
Overall, his so-called defense strategy further convinced everyone that he'd been caught up in political corruption. Fellow MPs dismissively nicknamed Kodola "Sasha-Poltorushka." However, given his parliamentary immunity and the extremely low moral standards in parliament, he was not prosecuted.
How the penniless Kodola became a millionaire thanks to his wife on maternity leave.
The documented bribery of Kodola is important for society not only because people learned the name of yet another crook with a mandate. A powerful system of political corruption within the Verkhovna Rada was exposed. Kodola's example confirmed that everyone takes money for everything. The only difference is the scale of the bribes. Some take millions of dollars to resolve political issues. Others are content with $1,500 for each parliamentary inquiry or question asked in the chamber. Thus, these crooks amass substantial capital through political prostitution.
The fact that the bribe was documented revealed that Kodola is a key player in the shadowy criminal-political betting ring within the Verkhovna Rada. The purpose of this betting ring is to find, at any moment and anywhere, a button-pusher with a parliamentary mandate who is ready to ask a question, sign a request, or sign a bill without explanation. Naturally, this button-pusher has no say in the content of his request. His job is to snag a "thank you" in a "hardcover American edition" and sign a blank sheet of paper.
In the case of MP Oleksandr Kodola, the entire corruption chain can be traced: from the moment the bribe was accepted to its legalization. Moreover, Kodola handled the final stage—the introduction of an "American hardcover" into the family "library"—as clumsily as the first.
Penniless when he entered parliament in 2014, Kodola became an official millionaire by 2015. Of course, it wasn't the "modest" civil servant himself who earned the Kodola family's first million, but his wife, Ekaterina. Moreover, she earned it while still on maternity leave, and in her very first year of entrepreneurship.
According to Kodola's tax return, his wife earned 1,4 million hryvnias in income in the first year of her business. In 2014, the future successful businesswoman earned a modest 32 hryvnias. Thus, the Kodola family's income increased 50-fold—a figure worthy of being included in the Ukrainian Book of Records.
According to the state register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, Ekaterina Kodola provides information and legal services. This is a classic method of laundering criminal proceeds and illegal cash. Information services do not require financial verification and allow the reporting of any income up to the level of a sole proprietor. Furthermore, Kodola can thus expand her family's income opportunities by blaming her wife for bogus tenders won for information services.
Another area of Kodola's "information" services, not classified by any particular classification, is "solving" police personnel recertification issues. Depending on the position being recertified, Kodola's services cost $6-8.
MP Kodola's corruption index: 40 corruption cases per year worth $60
Thus, over the course of a year, the family of the modest civil servant Kodola received almost $60. The nature of this figure is intriguing. After all, dividing $60 by Kodola's nationally known salary of $1,5 yields a corruption index for this deputy of 40 conventional units. In other words, Kodola completed at least 40 tasks over the course of a year, paid for in "hardcover American" form. This is from the declared funds. The actual amount is known only to Kodola himself and his accomplices in the shadow parliamentary betting system.
After laying out all the facts that are devastating to Kodola's reputation, his commentary on his wife's suddenly ignited business talent seems weak and unconvincing.
"My wife is in her second year of entrepreneurship. She started out selling baby products with her friends. Last year, she registered as a sole proprietor and provides real estate information services. She's been on maternity leave for two years now, but that hasn't stopped her from working. She's been searching for herself for a long time, and I'm glad she's making progress in that direction," Kodola said.
Of course, we all understand the joy of Oleksandr Kodola, a humble engineer at Chernihiv Auto Parts, for whom Yatsenyuk's People's Front, and earlier Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna, either inadvertently or deliberately, paved the way for political corruption. He allegedly managed to become a millionaire by buying diapers. But this joy is unlikely to be shared by a country at war with an external enemy, aware that its leadership is made up of crooks, swindlers, and swindlers of every stripe.
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