Head of Zelenskyy's Office Budanov on high-profile corruption revelations involving law enforcement officials: Decisive action needed

Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, has commented on the latest high-profile revelations by Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies as part of Operation Carthage, stressing that the situation "requires prompt and decisive action".

Source: Budanov on social media

Quote: "Regarding yesterday's events, the law is the same for everyone. Positions, ranks and powers cannot be grounds for avoiding accountability.

Corruption and any other crimes must be properly assessed under the law, and those responsible must be held accountable."

Details: The head of the President's Office stressed that the situation "requires prompt and decisive action", without specifying what measures he had in mind. Budanov added that he expected an objective, independent investigation and fair decisions.

Background:

• On 4 November, it emerged that searches had been conducted involving representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) and the police as part of Operation Carthage.
• Detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), under the procedural supervision of prosecutors from the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), served five members of a criminal organisation with notices of suspicion. The organisation had established a system of regularly paying bribes to senior law enforcement officials to ensure that fraudulent call centres and other illegal businesses could operate without interference.
• The pre-trial investigation established that the organiser of the criminal group, Andrii Osipov, who had previously been convicted on multiple occasions, had recruited serving senior officials from the Security Service of Ukraine, the Prosecutor General's Office and the National Police, as well as figures from the criminal underworld, to participate in the illegal activities.
• This enabled fraudulent call centres targeting Ukrainian citizens and foreigners to operate without interference, alongside drug trafficking, the illegal manufacture of counterfeit cigarettes and the production of counterfeit foreign currency, among other activities.
• Investigators also established that members of the criminal organisation were involved in assaults, abductions and inflicting bodily harm on individuals in the interests of the organisation.

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