Prosecutor General's Office department head organised "protection" for fraudulent 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, according to investigators, was headed by a senior official at the Prosecutor General's Office. Its members are suspected of systematically taking bribes from fraudulent call centres and laundering assets.

Source: NABU; SAPO

Details: A Prosecutor General's Office official set up the organisation in mid-2025 and recruited serving prosecutors and associates.

NABU claims that the members received illicit payments for not interfering with the operations of fraudulent call centres whose victims included Ukrainian and foreign citizens.

The money was laundered in various ways. More than UAH 20 million (about US$449,400) was spent on property, jewellery and other valuable assets.

According to NABU, the organisation's head transferred ownership of additional assets worth more than UAH 12 million (US$269,600) at market value to third parties, including property in an apartment complex near the Carpathian Mountains.

More than UAH 10 million (US$224,700), investigators claim, was placed in bank accounts belonging to close associates and disguised as income from business activities.

Law enforcement authorities currently say they have exposed five members of the organisation.

The case has been preliminarily classified under articles concerning the creation of and participation in a criminal organisation and the laundering of proceeds of crime. The investigation is identifying other possible members.

Background:

• Ukrainska Pravda learned 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 searches had been carried out at Kravchenko's home.
• 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 fraudulent call centres and the laundering of assets.
• The Prosecutor General's Office said it will fully cooperate with the anti-corruption agencies in the case concerning the operation of fraudulent call centres.
• 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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