Former Top MFA Official Arrested in Case of Embezzling Million-Dollar Donations

Former Deputy Foreign Minister Oleksandr Banzhkov was taken into custody for two months — investigators suspect him of stealing tens of millions of hryvnias raised to help Ukraine.

What the former head of the Foreign Ministry is suspected of: Former State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleksandr Banzhkov is suspected of fraud and money laundering. According to investigators, at the onset of the full-scale invasion he urged foreign donors and staff of diplomatic missions to transfer financial aid for Ukraine to the account of a public organization under his control. Then the money was moved to accounts of shell firms. Through conversion centers it was converted into cash and spent on the participants' own needs. In total, through the controlled companies and sole proprietors, 37,3 hryvnias could be laundered. What preventive measure was chosen for Banzhkov? The court remanded Banzhkov in custody for 60 days. As an alternative, a bail of 10 million hryvnias was set.

At the end of June, the anticorruption bureau detained the current People’s Deputy from Servant of the People, Serhiy Kuzminykh, who for four years avoided appearing at court in a bribery case. Meanwhile in July, NABU and SAP announced suspicions against eight individuals in a case of the embezzlement of more than 150 million hryvnias of the National Guard.