Corruption scandal: police and Odessa customs ignore President Poroshenko and show no fear of the Prosecutor General's Office.
A striking episode from the July 8 meeting between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and heads of regional state administrations in Odessa was Mikheil Saakashvili's revelation of egregious corruption schemes jointly organized by high-ranking officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Customs.
The scheme is as follows: criminal proceedings are opened against companies whose cargo is held at customs on trumped-up charges. The police then send a letter to the head of customs, prohibiting the cargo from being cleared without the physical presence of a specific investigator. As a result, the cargo takes a very long time to clear, or isn't cleared at all. Every day of delay at customs results in significant losses for businesses – entrepreneurs pay for the downtime, the labor of loaders, the rental of truck cranes, and so on. Meanwhile, customs officers informally recommend "resolving the issue" and even name specific officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs who can help. Ultimately, entrepreneurs are forced to comply with the extortionists' demands and pay bribes.
Describing this situation, to support his claims, Saakashvili provided the president with examples of letters sent by police to customs. Poroshenko handed them over to Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine David Sakvarelidze right there in the hall and instructed him to look into the situation.
However, just 24 hours after the President's public order to investigate this corruption scheme, a rather telling incident occurred: new letters, similar in nature, arrived at the Odessa Customs Office. We have obtained a copy of a document sent by Dmitry But, Deputy Head of the Main Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, to Igor Ustimenko, Acting Head of the Odessa Customs Office, on July 9, 2015.
The conclusion is obvious: either the overbearing customs officers and police are completely unafraid of the president, or the Prosecutor General's Office, which is supposedly investigating the situation on Poroshenko's orders, is also involved in the scheme.
Below is a photocopy of a letter from the Main Investigative Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Odessa Customs Office dated July 9, 2015.
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