The prosecutor's offices of the Kharkiv and Poltava regions have undergone some rather curious reshuffles: corrupt officials and oligarchic stooges have simply been reassigned. All of this despite the fact that all of the individuals discussed here have held various positions since time immemorial, yet their actions or criminal inactions have left a lasting impression on residents: apparently, this is what lustration "in the new" looks like.
Vasyl Sinchuk, who previously held a similar position in the Kharkiv region, has been appointed Prosecutor of the Poltava region. Yuriy Danilchenko, who previously served as head of the Department for the Protection of Citizens' Rights in the Prosecutor General's Office, has been sent to Kharkiv. The fate of former Poltava region prosecutor Oleksandr Zakoretsky, who was recently dismissed from the force, remains unknown, but the trend suggests that a warm and comfortable position will be found for him, too.
What are all these people famous for?
Vasyl Sinchuk, the newly appointed Poltava prosecutor, has made a name for himself in Kharkiv, as they say, from every angle. The local press ranked him 11th on the list of the most influential Kharkiv residents. He had held his position since February 2004, and when he was fired, he attempted to make a $1 million payment to then-Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun. However, at that time, the scandal surrounding the seizure of the Prosecutor General's Office by special police forces (2007, if you recall) had erupted, so the scheme fell through.
Sinchuk returned to his post as Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor on March 11, 2014, almost simultaneously with Arsen Avakov's protégé, Kharkiv Regional Governor Ihor Baluta. Sinchuk is known for many things, but the most notable are worth recalling.
Evil tongues say that Sinchuk received several million US dollars for his "correct" investigation of the Kushnarev case alone, after which he happily bought a stallion, an expensive carbine, and four cars (including a BMW X5 and two Mercedes). The newly appointed Poltava region prosecutor also has a 20-year-old son, who owns a variety of businesses. Sinchuk himself even likes to publicly boast about his son's successes, but these same evil tongues claim that the prosecutor's son's businesses are nothing more than a cover for his father's corruption.
Against this backdrop, Sinchuk's actions, such as "covering up" the son of his old friend, 17-year-old Dmitry Karatumanov, who fatally struck a man in an Audi 8 in 2008, seem like mere trifles.
Sinchuk's colleague, former deputy regional prosecutor S.P. Khachatryan, was also not left without a post: he was transferred to the city prosecutor's office, although back in the days of the Prosecutor General Alexandra Medvedko Public complaints against this man were even filed with the President of Ukraine. Specifically, Khachatryan was accused of delaying the investigation into case No. 56980222, which was opened for embezzlement of funds on an especially large scale, and of numerous other corruption-related offenses.
The newly appointed Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor, Yuriy Danilchenko, appears cleaner than his predecessor; at least, no public evidence of corruption has been found. However, it's possible he also encountered corruption during his time in the Prosecutor General's Office for Oversight of Citizens' Rights and Combating Corruption, his penultimate position.
Danilchenko built his career in the Mykolaiv and Kirovohrad regions, where he served as deputy prosecutor and regional prosecutor. More interestingly, after leaving the police, Danilchenko took a job at Nadra Bank, owned by oligarch Dmytro Firtash. At Nadra, the current Kharkiv prosecutor held the position of vice president of the board, which speaks to his high-level connections.
Moreover, in 2012, the new Kharkiv Oblast prosecutor served as a trusted representative of parliamentary candidate Volodymyr Tymoshyn, who ran in Mykolaiv's 127th electoral district. Tymoshyn lost and now works as an ordinary member of the Mykolaiv City Executive Committee, as well as a lawyer and arbitrator. However, during the election campaign, he was caught organizing carousel voting, which he later accused other candidates of doing. History is silent on his role in this story, but it is clear that the former Mykolaiv Oblast prosecutor must have known how election fraud was organized.
We've previously written in detail about Oleksandr Zakoretsky, who was dismissed from the Poltava prosecutor's office, so Prosecutor's Truth won't repeat the story, but will simply ask three questions:
— Will Vasily Sinchuk's son move his "business" from Kharkiv to Poltava, since his father's "roof" is now located there?
Given the extensive political experience of the new Kharkiv prosecutor, Yuriy Danilchenko, and his connections with oligarchs, will he apply this experience in the upcoming elections, and in whose interests? And hasn't Danilchenko been tasked with overseeing the "correct" conduct of the vote?
— When will we finally hear what new position Alexander Zakoretsky will be reassigned to? Because, judging by the trend, this is bound to happen. After all, prosecutors don't abandon their own.
— And does Vitaly Yarema know that simply reshuffling prosecutors doesn't change the quality of their work or the level of justice?
Prosecutor's Truth
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