Yuriy Lutsenko
Lutsenko's prison experience taught him nothing. The "secrets" of the Prosecutor General's successful statistics.
On Wednesday, February 15, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko delivered a report on the Prosecutor General's Office's work over the past year. As always, he lied cynically. This report was prepared by the Anti-Corruption Action Center.
Despite the fact that the crime detection rate has fallen below 30% of the total number of crimes committed (which has never happened before), the Prosecutor General's Office has allegedly managed to significantly (!) improve its reporting on all other indicators: from the return of funds and land to the state budget and citizens, to compensation for damages, from the fight against corruption to the amounts of claims and arrests.
The soaring numbers of the Prosecutor General's Office (GPO) amid a catastrophic decline in crime detection is a ploy exclusively by Lutsenko. In reality, this simply cannot happen. Perhaps that's why this master of the conversation and the president's godfather ignored the statistics on murders and robberies—the two indicators that best characterize the state of crime in the country. Meanwhile, thefts, robberies, and murders in Ukraine are rapidly increasing. The rise in thefts, murders, and robberies amid a declining crime detection rate signals a breakdown in law enforcement, primarily the GPO with its over-the-top powers in this area.
(The GPU statistics can be found here).
The Prosecutor General's Office's official successes are ill-advised by the fact that the agency has deliberately "buried" almost all high-profile criminal cases against the most notorious members of the "Yanukovych family": these cases were essentially sold to criminals by Poroshenko's gang, with the participation of Prosecutor Generals Vitaliy Yarema, Viktor Shokin, and Yuriy Lutsenko, as well as a number of their deputies.
Today, the Prosecutor General's Office (GPU) is fully, comprehensively, comprehensively, and professionally investigating only crimes against Maidan activists. However, several GPU leaders have attempted to sabotage this investigation, "disrupt" it, and disband the investigative team. A particular role in this sabotage belongs to First Deputy Prosecutor General Yuriy Stolyarchuk, a protégé of Viktor Medvedchuk. This man is also obstructing the investigation into the "Gongadze case" and the identification of those who ordered the murders of journalists and their organizers. This man is now Yuriy Lutsenko's "right hand."
Moreover, there is a firm belief that the activities of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine—or Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko himself—are controlled by the Russian Federation's intelligence services. Only this control can explain the fact that the Prosecutor General's Office is ignoring any possibility of investigating the murders of RUKh leader Vyacheslav Chornovol and former Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko. These murders are the work of not only the Russian intelligence services but also a number of Petro Poroshenko's current accomplices.
Yuriy Lutsenko's behavior may be due to the special terms of the agreement between Yanukovych and the Kremlin, under which he was released from the penal colony where he served his sentence in 2012-2013. His Russian "partners" (handlers) could well have intervened on Lutsenko's behalf: consider that as Minister of Internal Affairs, Yuriy Vitalyevich oversaw the affairs of the leaders of the Luzhniki organized crime group (RF), and their representative, Kirill Kulikov, served as his handler; later, Lutsenko's "People's Self-Defense" project was financed by career Russian intelligence officer David Zhvania, and so on and so forth.
We won't waste our readers' time with a line-by-line analysis of Yuriy Lutsenko's lies; all the main complaints about the Prosecutor General's Office and Lutsenko himself have been articulated with utmost precision by the Anti-Corruption Action Center (ACAC)—read the text below.
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Questions for Yuriy Lutsenko
On February 6, 2015, on the eve of the dismissal of Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema, the Anti-Corruption Action Center publicly posed a number of questions to him and passed them on to members of parliament.
He was speaking to parliamentarians in the Rada at the time. His speech and the answers to these questions could have ultimately sank or saved Yarema.
"Who leaked the Zlochevsky case and will be punished? How much of the money frozen from Yanukovych and Co. has been recovered? What happened to the Tantalit documents leaked by journalists? Why hasn't the Prosecutor General's Office yet submitted a single indictment for corruption against those on the EU sanctions list to court?" we asked a year after the Revolution of Dignity.
But the Prosecutor General had no answers to most of the questions.
Two years have passed, and virtually the same questions remain relevant for the fourth Prosecutor General, Yuriy Lutsenko.
Cleansing the prosecutor's office
In his public appearances, Lutsenko constantly emphasizes that under his leadership, the purging of dishonest prosecutors from the prosecutor's office continues. To this end, he even initiated a secret integrity audit, promising to fire prosecutors based on its results. However, instead of dismissals, Lutsenko punishes them with "reprimands" and "warnings."
Dmytro Sus, an investigator in the Kononenko-Granovskyi department, is known for declaring "grandma's Audi Q7 (worth 1 million hryvnias)" and torturing Anti-Corruption Bureau employees. Instead of releasing him for lying on his integrity questionnaire, Yuriy Lutsenko reprimanded Dmytro Sus for "violating the procedure for submitting a declaration" and "submitting false statements" on the prosecutor's integrity questionnaire. Sus continues to work as an investigator.
Following the internal investigations, Lutsenko issued a reprimand to senior Prosecutor General's Office investigator Oleksiy Alfimov, who stole fuel coupons during a search, and a warning to cease unethical behavior to fugitive prosecutor Serhiy Storozhenko, who forgot to list his own companies in his 2015 income tax return and fled a journalist at full speed. Instead of being dismissed, both unscrupulous prosecutors remained in their positions (yesterday, during the Prosecutor General's press conference, it was announced that Lutsenko finally fired the Prosecutor General's Office investigator detained by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) for theft – A).
Prosecutor General Yulia Kulikova concealed in her declaration a mention of her husband's business, which was connected to Yanukovych's son, Oleksandr. This information is confirmed by the state registry. However, the Prosecutor General's Office did not believe the official information and saw "no grounds for taking retaliatory measures" against Kulikova. Kulikova still goes to work today.
None of the organizers or participants in the detention, kidnapping, and torture of Anti-Corruption Bureau employees were punished. Dmitry Sus and two of his colleagues from the Department for Investigating Particularly Important Economic Cases were temporarily suspended pending an internal investigation. The investigation concluded on October 19, 2016. Sus and his team subsequently returned to work.
Investigator V. Mashika from Kononenko-Granovskyi's department, who led the falsified case against the Anti-Corruption Action Center (ACAC – A), continues to climb the ranks. Despite the fact that we ultimately succeeded in initiating a criminal case on these facts, the Prosecutor General's Office found no grounds for an internal investigation into the actions of the investigators and prosecutors who fabricated the case. Last December, Lutsenko promoted Senior Investigator Mashika to head of the First Investigative Department of the Department for the Investigation of Criminal Proceedings in the Economic Sector of the Department for the Investigation of Particularly Important Cases in the Economic Sector.
In November, Lutsenko also appointed Baganets, the son of Shokin's former deputy and Yuriy Lutsenko's own lawyer, as his son. Baganets Jr. became Deputy Prosecutor of the Poltava Region.
Military Prosecutor Kulik, accused by Anti-Corruption Bureau detectives of illicit enrichment, still works as a military prosecutor. An internal investigation was conducted against him, which "found unethical behavior." The court refused to remove Kulik from office.
- So how many prosecutors were actually fired as a result of the integrity check? Who lost their jobs?
Almost all of Viktor Shokin's controversial deputies also remained in their positions. - Roman Govda (Read more about it in the article Roman Govda: How a prosecutor became a fixer), Shokin's former deputy. As head of the Odesa prosecutor's office, he closed a criminal case involving the construction of what was then the most expensive kindergarten in Ukraine in the Odesa region. Under Pshonka, he headed the department overseeing police officers who illegally hunted and wiretapped Maidan activists. As Kyiv prosecutor, Govda closed the case of the rich kid Tolstosheyev, who had been kept out of prison for a year. Lutsenko intends to reopen the investigation and punish the investigators who closed the case. Who is being punished?
- Yuriy Stolyarchuk. He was responsible for all GPU investigations while Shokin was still in office. He leaked the Ivanyushchenko case, and the court forced the GPU to close it. (The family of the GPU prosecutor in the Ivanyushchenko case bought three apartments and a house in two years. The bandit is now free.) He leaked the Elena Lukash case, kept the diamond prosecutor Shapakin under his protection, illegally prosecuted the "reformers" Sakvarelidze, sabotaged the reform of the prosecutor's office... Lutsenko deliberately kept Stolyarchuk in his position to achieve results for his PR. Stolyarchuk still oversees the investigation of the "sanctions list" and is personally responsible for the progress of the cases—he is the one who signs off on all the GPU responses regarding the status of these proceedings. It has also become clear from the constant correspondence between the Anchorage and the GPU that Stolyarchuk currently oversees the "Kononenko-Granovsky" department—he signs off on all the responses regarding this department's cases.
- Yuri Sevruk, who is currently educating a new generation of prosecutors, retired from his position as Shokin's deputy to the Academy of the Prosecutor's Office, where he became vice-rector.
2. Why are Yerema-Shokin's deputies still in office? When and with whom will Yuriy Lutsenko replace them?
Cases on the sanctions list
When MPs voted to appoint Yuriy Lutsenko as Prosecutor General, the package also included legislative amendments that facilitated the prosecution of individuals on the sanctions list. Specifically, the procedure for in absentia trials was simplified. Thus, Lutsenko was armed with everything he needed to bring the investigation into the corruption of Yanukovych and his cronies to a close.
But in practice, this doesn't happen. We explained why in detail in our report.
Vitkor Yanukovych (page 19). Of the seven criminal cases, five are for corruption. No judicial investigation has been opened in any of them. Details are in our report. Dozens of assets have been seized: millions in cash, cars, buildings, apartments, and land. However, none of the seized assets have been returned to state ownership, as Yanukovych has not been convicted.
Oleksandr Yanukovych (p. 23). There is no progress in all four cases—the investigations have been suspended pending the search for the suspect.
Vitaly Zakharchenko (p. 25). Four criminal cases in which Zakharchenko is a suspect have been suspended pending the search for the suspect. Meanwhile, Zakharchenko's gold mining operations have not been seized and continue to operate.
Viktor and Artem Pshonka (pages 27-28). The case of embezzlement of funds from renovations at the Prosecutor General's Office headquarters has gone cold—the suspects are wanted. Pshonka's house, which was seized by prosecutors, was completely looted by unknown persons. The losses inflicted on the state by both career law enforcement officers have not been compensated.
Elena Lukash (p. 30). The case was "leaked".
The Klyuev brothers (pp. 31-32). The GPU seized fake valuables from one of the houses, while the billions in damages inflicted by the Klyuevs on our economy remain unpaid. Not a single loan taken out by the Klyuevs' businesses from state banks has been repaid.
Sergei Arbuzov (p. 39). The case is stalled. $1,5 billion in government bonds, which belonged to offshore companies affiliated with Arbuzov and were sold to firms linked to Alexander Onishchenko, were seized. This was established by detectives from the Anti-Corruption Bureau, not investigators from the Prosecutor General's Office. The latter, on the contrary, failed to provide sufficient evidence linking the $50 million seized from Arbuzov's Latvian accounts, and the Latvians confiscated the money for their own budget.
The cases against Zlochevsky and Ivanyushchenko are hopeless; Bogatyreva, Prisyazhnyuk, Stavytsky, Kolobov , Klymenko, Tabachnyk… corruption crimes have not been proven, nothing has been confiscated, and the remaining cases are crumbling before our eyes. Yefremov is facing a separatism case, Kurchenko is still being investigated by "Matios's eagles," the investigation estimates losses at 7,8 billion hryvnias, and property worth 3 billion has been seized.
The individuals listed remain under sanctions by the EU and other countries. Every day that criminal cases against those on the sanctions list drags on becomes further evidence for international bodies to assert that these cases are politically motivated and undermines the existing evidence.
Not a single promise by Lutsenko to bring such cases to court in 2016 was fulfilled.
3. When will all these cases go to court? What has the Prosecutor General's Office managed to return to state ownership through administrative lawsuits?
Assets seized and returned
"In 2016, 15,5 billion hryvnias were awarded in favor of citizens and the state based on claims filed by the Prosecutor General's Office. 9 billion hryvnias were actually recovered over the year. Nearly a thousand unlawful court decisions were overturned, preventing 23 billion hryvnias in state losses," Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said in a New Year's greeting to citizens.
We asked the Prosecutor General for the numbers of all these court decisions, so we could personally verify his claims about billions being returned to the state. The Prosecutor General's Office did not provide us with any information.
However, we were able to partially decipher this data. This concerns the enforcement of court decisions on claims filed by prosecutors at all levels, a total of approximately 8000. Meanwhile, claims filed by the Prosecutor General's Office (GPU) alone were satisfied for a total of UAH 613,6 million, of which UAH 271,6 million was actually recovered—just over a third of the amount announced by the Prosecutor General!
To be honest, of the actual court rulings executed on claims filed by prosecutors at all levels, the Prosecutor General's Office (GPU) wins only 4%. At the same time, the GPU is supposed to investigate particularly serious and grave crimes, and, accordingly, the amounts awarded to them should be greater than those claimed by regional prosecutors' offices, whose victories Lutsenko added to his "basket."
Most of the results announced by the Prosecutor General are not supported by documentary evidence. As a result of fact-checking, we uncover manipulation, distortion, exaggeration, and sometimes outright lies.
This is in stark contrast to the way the Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau reports on his results: using diagrams, specific indicators, and documents.
Perhaps this is why there is constant confrontation between the two bodies.
The Prosecutor General's Office's offensive against the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU)
4. Who was punished for the kidnapping and torture of technical staff of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, who ended up in the basement of the GPU and were illegally "interrogated" by employees of the Kononenko-Granovsky department?
Sytnyk recently publicly stated that the entire NABU leadership had been stripped of full access to the Unified Register of Criminal Cases. However, the head of the anti-corruption prosecutor's office and his deputies still have such access. Restricting NABU leadership's access to full data on criminal cases investigated by other law enforcement agencies is illegal and hinders the Bureau's ability to fully perform its functions.
5. On what grounds did you revoke access? And why only from three senior officials of the Bureau? And how will NABU implement its function of requisitioning cases from other agencies if detectives have no way to review them?
6. When will Yuriy Lutsenko's constant attempts to "undermine" the Anti-Corruption Bureau's jurisdiction cease?
First, he limited NABU's ability to investigate cases involving other law enforcement agencies that might involve officials. Then, Lutsenko's proposed amendments to a number of laws were introduced in the Rada. The essence of these amendments is that the Prosecutor General has the right to remove any case from NABU and transfer it to another law enforcement agency for investigation.
In January-February 2017 alone, the Prosecutor General's Office violated NABU's jurisdiction four times and is investigating cases without involving detectives:
- officials of the capital's police headquarters who were caught embezzling almost 10 million hryvnias, which were intended to pay police officers;
- officials of PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia, who embezzled funds in the amount of almost 50 million UAH;
- officials of OJSC Belotserkovskaya TPP, who took possession of money in the amount of more than 170 million UAH;
to the Deputy Prosecutor of the Kirovograd region when he was provided with an illegal benefit.
On the topic: Yuriy Lutsenko. The "Terminator" of Ukrainian politics
Igor Kononenko, the President's Army Buddy
Alexander Granovsky: the cynical "fixer" of the presidential "family"
Viktor Shokin. The Prosecutor "On Vacation"
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