Chornovol: A lot of work ahead for Ukraine’s corruption fighters

Chornovol said she plans official investigating the activities of politicians with the Yanukovych-led Party of Regions

She said that billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, former Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko, businessman Dmytro Firtash, Party of Regions lawmaker Yuriy Ivanyushchenko and ex-presidential chief of staff Andriy Klyuyev are high on her list of potential investigative targets.

“We need to fight them down, they are still having impact on the situation in Ukraine,” Chornovol told the Kyiv Post.

She accuses Ivanyushchenko of providing money for the pro-Russian separatist movements in eastern Ukraine. His whereabouts are unknown.

Ivanyushchenko was one of the key managers within Yanukovych’s scheme of control over the country, she added, and during the EuroMaidan Revolution the lawmaker was organizing so-called “death squads” to fight against the protesters. “These ‘death squads’ still exist and they are being used in the east,” Chornovol said.

Moreover, she is focused on investigating the privatization sales of state property, which brought fabulous wealth to Ukraine’s favored business people, “We need to dig into each case very attentively,” she said.

The former deputy head of Kyiv Commercial Court, Viktoriya Dzharty, is another subject of investigation as she was informally overseeing the court system under Yanukovych’s regime, according to Chornovol.

“People like them have to spend at least half a year in jail, so their personal connections would be ruined,” Chornovol said.

Shadow schemes used by Naftogaz and non-transparent transactions from the National Bank of Ukrainian will be carefully investigated, too, she said.

She is not hopeful about recovering the assets of Yanukovych’s inner circle. Acting Prosecutor General Oleg Makhnitsky earlier estimated those at $100 billion, including $32 billion transferred to Russia in cash. “I don’t think that Ukraine will ever get this money back – they will end up in the budgets of the countries where assets had been allocated,” explains country’s anticorruption chief officer.

However, to participate actively in the asset recovery projects, Chornovol hired Olena Tyshchenko, a former lawyer for Kazakhstan’s exiled politician and businessman Mukhtar Ablyazov, who is accused for laundering $3.3 billion through his BTA bank. “She is a very experienced lawyer and knows such cases very well,” said Chornovol. The appointment came with criticism, however, since Tyshchenko has personal connections through her husband with Sergiy Pashynsky, head of the President’s Administration. But Chornovol said she doesn’t see a conflict of interest.

Chornovol emphasized she is not very comfortable with her anti-corruption role.

“I do not investigate anything at this point,” she said. “I have to create the national service on fighting corruption first, which does not look like a suitable task for me. But when it will come up to conducting real investigations – this is going to be the work that fits me best.”

She said, however, that Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is supportive of her work.

The anti-corruption service will employ 1,200 people in seven regional offices, investigating and preparing cases for prosecution.

After being nominated by EuroMaidan Revolution leaders on Feb. 26 and receiving her appointment on March 5, Chornovol prepared legislation outlining the model of the service. However, her plan is facing competition from Viktor Chumak, a lawmaker with Vitali Klitschko’s Ukrainian Alliance for Democratic Rerform, who has filed an alternative bill.

The two projects are different. Chornovol sees the service as an independent structure whose head is appointed by the National Security and Defense Council. Chumak envisions an anticorruption bureau, whose chief is appointed by the commission of the justice minister, prosecutor general and delegates from the president and the Verkhovna Rada. Moreover, bill allows the Anticorruption Bureau to investigate corruption schemes in the private sector, not just the public sector, which Chornovol views as a suspicious way to control business.

Lack of qualified employees is another challenge for the government’s anticorruption work. Chief anticorruption officer receives a monthly salary of $520, while the job requires serious effort and an excellent professional background. Low salaries also make some public officials more susceptible to bribes.

Kyiv Post associate business editor Ivan Verstyuk can be reached at verstyuk@kyivpost.com.