Ukraine Official Says Bribe Was Offered to Close Zlochevsky Case
Ukraine Official Says Bribe Was Offered to Close Zlochevsky Case
(Bloomberg) -- Top anti-graft officials in Ukraine were offered a $6-million bribe to close a case against ex-official Mykola Zlochevsky, who is also the owner of gas company Burisma Holdings, the company that was at the center of the impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Three people have been detained as a part of a criminal investigation opened on June 3 into the bribery attempt, Artem Sytnyk, the head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau said at a press conference on Saturday. The suspects include two people associated with Zlochevsky, a former minister of environmental protection under then-President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia in February 2014 after mass protests. Zlochevsky’s whereabouts are unknown.
At the press conference, agents from the anti-corruption agency displayed huge plastic bags filled with bundles of U.S. dollars that were used to pay Sytnyk and a colleague who had pretended they had closed the probe. They then ordered the arrest of the suspects who were trying to get the agency to drop a case related to bank fraud, unrelated to Burisma, that involved Zlochevsky, Sytnyk said.
“Tomorrow is Zlochevsky’s birthday. So, the plan was to get the best possible outcome -– to close the criminal proceedings and ensure the return of Mr. Zlochevsky to Ukraine,” Sytnyk said.
In 2014, Ukraine opened criminal cases against Zlochevsky, including cases linked to Burisma, where Joe Biden’s son sat on the board and received substantial compensation. President Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives over his efforts to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden’s role in Burisma to try to harm Joe Biden’s chances of victory in the November elections.
The Bidens “are not mentioned in today’s case,” the head of anti-corruption prosecutors Nazar Kholodnytskyi said at the same press event. A year ago, then Ukrainian prosecutor-general, Yuriy Lutsenko, said there was no evidence of wrongdoing by either Joe Biden or his son Hunter.
Zlochevsky’s lawyer Petro Boyko said by phone that his client has no connection to the $6 million bribe or the people who have been detained and added that the case that prosecutors are talking about included many people. Boyko denied any wrongdoing by his client.
Burisma Group said on its website today that neither the company nor its employees are the target of statements by anti-corruption bodies today.
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