Department head at Prosecutor General's Office arranged "protection" for scam call centres – photo
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) have announced that they have uncovered a criminal organisation which investigators say was headed by the head of a department at the Prosecutor General's Office. Members of the organisation are suspected of regularly taking bribes from scam call centres and laundering the proceeds of crime.
Source: NABU; SAPO; UP sources in law enforcement agencies
Details: The investigation has established that an official at the Prosecutor General's Office set up the organisation in mid-2025 and recruited serving prosecutors and associates.
Sources have told Ukrainska Pravda that the official in question is Serhii Kropyva.
NABU says the members received illicit payments in exchange for not interfering with the operations of scam call centres whose victims included Ukrainians and people in other countries.
The money they received was laundered in various ways. Over UAH 20 million (about US$449,400) was spent on property, jewellery and other high-value assets.
According to NABU, the group's ringleader transferred ownership of additional assets with a market value of over UAH 12 million (US$269,600) – including property in an apartment complex near the Carpathian Mountains – to third parties.
The investigators say more than UAH 10 million (US$224,700) was placed in bank accounts belonging to close associates and disguised as business income.
Law enforcement agencies currently say they have exposed five members of the organisation.
The case has been provisionally classified as falling under articles of the Criminal Code that concern the establishment of and participation in a criminal organisation and the laundering of proceeds of crime. The investigation is identifying other possible members.
Background:
- Sources told Ukrainska Pravda that NABU and SAPO were conducting searches at premises belonging to Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, his deputy Mariia Vdovychenko and Oleh Kiper, Head of Odesa Oblast Military Administration. The Prosecutor General's Office later denied that Kravchenko's premises had been searched.
- On the evening of 4 September, it was reported that NABU and SAPO were conducting investigative actions at the Prosecutor General's Office as part of a special operation to expose a criminal organisation.
- According to Ukrainska Pravda sources in business circles, NABU and SAPO have detained Serhii Kropyva, deputy head of the International Legal Cooperation Department of the Prosecutor General's Office.
- NABU and SAPO said they were conducting a special operation to expose a criminal organisation headed by an official from the Prosecutor General's Office and involved in protecting a network of scam call centres and money laundering.
- The Prosecutor General's Office said it will cooperate fully with the anti-corruption agencies in the case.
- The Prosecutor General's Office added that it will suspend the employee whose possible involvement in unlawful activities is being investigated.
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