First deputy prosecutor general resigns amid investigation into prosecutor's office
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9 September, 16:09
Mariia Vdovychenko. Photo: Prosecutor General’s Office
First Deputy Prosecutor General Mariia Vdovychenko, who features in an investigation by anti-corruption agencies, has resigned from her position and left the prosecution service.
Source: Prosecutor General's Office press service in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda
Details: On 9 September, Ukrainska Pravda was told that Vdovychenko had submitted her resignation and that the relevant order had been signed. "Yesterday was her last working day," the source told UP.
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Background:
- On 4 September, Ukrainska Pravda reported that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) were conducting searches at the premises of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, his deputy Mariia Vdovychenko and Oleh Kiper, Head of Odesa Oblast Military Administration.
- On 5 September, the Prosecutor General's Office confirmed that NABU detectives had conducted searches in offices "used by Kravchenko".
- According to Ukrainska Pravda sources in business circles, NABU and SAPO had detained Serhii Kropyva, deputy head of the International Legal Cooperation Department of the Prosecutor General's Office.
- On 5 September, NABU and SAPO announced that they had uncovered a criminal organisation which investigators said is 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 money laundering. Sources told Ukrainska Pravda that the department head in question is Serhii Kropyva.
- Materials found during searches at the home of Mariia Vdovychenko, First Deputy Prosecutor General under Ruslan Kravchenko, indicated that the heads of Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies, their families and subordinates were being monitored.
- Ruslan Kravchenko submitted his resignation as prosecutor general amid the NABU and the SAPO investigation into the "protection" of scam call centres.
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