"The Mystery of Knyazev’s Phone": Why a "War" Erupted Over the Case of the Former Head of the Supreme Court and What They Tried to Hide

"The Mystery of Knyazev’s Phone": Why a "War" Erupted Over the Case of the Former Head of the Supreme Court and What They Tried to Hide

The exposure of Supreme Court head Vsevolod Knyazev for taking a bribe could become the most high-profile anti-corruption case of the year in Ukraine — and not only because an official of the highest rank was detained. The judge’s work phone contained a large number of secrets and "interesting conversations" with senior officials, which led to strange events around the device and now call into question the impartiality of the leaders of certain independent agencies.

Audio files with excerpts of those conversations leaked online, raising suspicion that "someone in the SAP" was very uninterested in the phone being decoded. The agency’s leadership risks being caught up in a scandal that could "cost them dearly," investigators at Censor.NET suggest, recounting the mysteries of Knyazev’s phone.

According to the outlet, on 29 June the position of head of the First Department of the Office for Procedural Supervision, Maintenance of State Accusation and Court Representation of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, held by Oleksandr Omelchenko, was eliminated by decision of Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin. Omelchenko was in charge of the Knyazev case and had been working on it from the start.

The position was cut after Omelchenko "effectively fell out" with SAP head Oleksandr Klymenko over who would crack the judge’s phone.

"There were two options — Ukraine without a guarantee of success or Poland with a guarantee, but without prior attempts by Ukrainian specialists. Omelchenko requested help from the Poles. And that became the start of a big conflict in the SAP, as well as the reason for filing a complaint against Klymenko with the Council of Prosecutors, a copy of which Censor.NET has," the investigators write.

Recall that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine detained Supreme Court head Vsevolod Knyazev while receiving a bribe of $2,7 million, which was being paid for a ruling in a case involving Konstantyn Zhevaho’s company.

It later emerged that attorney Oleh Horetskyi, who built a whole network for resolving court matters for money, is also involved in the case, as well as former Mykolaiv city council deputy and notary Kyrylo Horburov. While Knyazev was caught "in the act," it was not possible to document information about some judges who may also have been involved in making decisions for bribes.

"Judging by what was stated in court, Knyazev organized joint communication among scheme participants and determined in which cases arrangements could be made. Under the cover of legal practice, Horetskyi was supposed to find such 'clients,' and Horburov handled the transfer of funds between the parties," the report says.

At a press conference, NABU’s director presented the case as a joint victory with the SAP. At that time, Oleksandr Klymenko and Oleksandr Omelchenko stood beside him.

The Ukrainian public defended Klymenko for more than a year in the competition for SAP head, where "the authorities tried to push through their candidates," including the current prosecutor general Andriy Kostin, and then for several months "blocked the confirmation of results and Klymenko’s victory."

Omelchenko was elected head of the SAP’s First Department in an open competition in 2015. Seven prosecutors reported to him. His department exercised procedural supervision in the cases of former First Vice Prime Minister Andriy Klyuyev, PrivatBank, former Deputy Minister of Defense Ihor Khalimon for signing illegal additional agreements, and the head of SE Ukrpatent Andriy Kudin regarding embezzlement. He also oversaw the proceedings in the Knyazev case, the deputy minister of community development Lozynskyi, the "golden eggs of the Ministry of Defense" case, and abuses by officials of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration during contract awards with Budinvest Engineering.

"During the first half of 2023, Omelchenko’s department transferred to court indictment proceedings in cases of inaccurate declarations by MPs Marynah Shol and Serhiy Nahorniak, the head of the Department of International Police Cooperation at the National Police Nevoli, misappropriation of funds by the director of SE Pivdennyi Sea Port, charges against the director of the Zhytomyr Armored Vehicle Plant Butenko, and others," the investigators listed.

They emphasized that there were no complaints about Omelchenko’s work until he authorized a NABU detective’s request for international legal assistance to Poland regarding decoding Judge Knyazev’s phone.

Citing sources within NABU, Censor.NET reports that there were two concepts for "hacking" the device — to do it in Ukraine "without a guarantee of success" or in Poland. Some argued for breaking it in Ukraine, where there was a high probability the data would be lost. However, the phone was successfully cracked in Poland and returned to NABU.

But it turned out that this success caused a quarrel that "could cost the SAP leadership its reputation very dearly." It is known that on 21 June the agency head summoned Omelchenko and asked where Knyazev’s phone was. The prosecutor replied that it was on NABU premises, but Klymenko said: "he knows the phone is outside NABU premises."

"After that, in a raised tone combined with shouting, he began asking me whether it was true that I had signed a request for international legal assistance in this criminal proceeding regarding the mobile phone of suspect Knyazev and what exactly was asked in the request," the outlet quotes Omelchenko’s appeal to the Council of Prosecutors, in which he accuses Klymenko of pressure.

According to him, he confirmed to the SAP head that he had granted such permission, after which "Klymenko reproached him for not having the right to involve specialists from Poland."

"I did not agree with Klymenko’s stance, which was expressed to me in a rude manner and clearly exceeded the powers of the SAP head, because, as the senior prosecutor in the proceedings, I reliably knew from NABU detectives that attempts to overcome the phone’s logical protection by experts during a forensic-technical examination on Ukrainian territory carried the risk of irretrievably losing the possibility of obtaining any information from the phone in the future. At the same time, according to NABU detectives, specialists from Poland could ensure avoidance of such a risk of data loss and achieve the result needed for the pre-trial investigation. In addition, there are no legal obstacles to such international cooperation," Omelchenko’s statement reads.

The prosecutor said he offered Klymenko to withdraw the request for international assistance if he considered it illegal. Instead, at the end of the conversation, which escalated into a quarrel, Klymenko "promised him that he would no longer work at the SAP."

"After leaving Klymenko’s office, Omelchenko called the head of NABU’s Second Department of Detectives, Indychenko, asking about the fate of the phone and about pressure from the SAP head. He also informed his subordinates Hrechishkin and Vasylenkov, and the head of the second NABU detectives’ unit, Polkin. On 30 June Omelchenko went on annual leave, and upon returning to work on 3 July, he learned that by order of the Prosecutor General his position had been eliminated," the investigators write.

According to them, Prosecutor General Kostin agreed to the cut knowing that 13 SAP employees, including four members of leadership, are currently mobilized, so the workload on prosecutors is only increasing.

Omelchenko called the elimination of his position "a consequence of arrangements by Klymenko, who was dissatisfied with his actions in the Knyazev case." In response to Censor.NET’s inquiry, the SAP head redirected the answer to the press service, which said its goal is to strengthen the staff with new prosecutors by optimizing departments and added that "SAP leadership has no personal conflicts with any of the prosecutors."

At the same time, journalists say the office effectively refused to comment on sending Knyazev’s phone to Poland, citing the "secrecy of the pre-trial investigation."

Investigators found another detail in this story that, in their view, strongly calls into question the integrity of the SAP leadership’s actions. They suggest that the successful arrest of the judge by NABU and the seizure of his phones could lead to a major scandal around the authorities. It is noted that investigators failed to detain one of the case’s figures — attorney Oleh Horetskyi — in time. Law enforcement initially could not catch his car, and later, when the lawyer reached his home, he jumped from the building’s cornice while detectives waited for backup to break down the door. Ultimately, when Horetskyi was detained in a hotel, he had already "cleaned his phone."

"Maybe this did not happen by chance. In the SRO materials there are fragments that potentially indicate a connection between SAP deputy head Syniuk and Knyazev’s associates, including the attorney. On 30 March a conversation took place between Horetskyi and Mykolaiv notary Kyrylo Horburov in which the former speaks of acquaintance with the SAP deputy head (since there is only one deputy, it can only mean Andriy Syniuk) in one of Kyiv’s restaurants," the publication says.

Analyzing the audio, investigators suggested that a third person introduced the interlocutors and, sources told the outlet, that person is Vitalii Chubaievskyi — head of the Directorate for Strategic Planning and EU Integration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Judging by the conversation, the lawyer was interested in a tax reporting case. In another audio, Horetskyi spoke with Syniuk; another recorded conversation was with Oleksandr Hlimbovskyi, during which the lawyer boasted that they were "in dialogue with the SAP deputy head." When asked about Klymenko himself, Horetskyi replied:

"He’s a former NABU guy. Do you understand what that even means? Are these specialists? No. That’s the worst. You know how they say: whatever party you form, you end up with the CPSU. Whatever law enforcement body — you end up with the NKVD. They get some task and start doing it crookedly, sloppily. You can’t rewind it, you can’t later wash yourself clean. And these judges legalize everything."

Censor.NET reached out to Syniuk for comment about acquaintance with Horetskyi, but he did not respond. The outlet reminded that after Andriy Kostin was eliminated from the competition, the Office of the President "was betting on Syniuk," who in December 2021 petitioned the Administrative Court of Kyiv to demand the commission delay establishing the competition results. However, in an interview with Le Monde, Klymenko spoke of his joint work with Syniuk as being "of one whole." The SAP press service also gave a vague response about possible acquaintance between staff and Horetskyi and a possible leak of materials.

"If the cited excerpts are true, and it is unlikely they were artfully edited, then suspicion arises that someone in SAP leadership was intensely uninterested in decoding Knyazev’s phone. And then the anger at the prosecutor who sent the phone to Poland becomes understandable. As far as is known, they tried to resolve this conflict quietly, but after one comment was published, all the stopcocks were blown. As a result, SAP leadership will get a scandal that could cost them dearly," the investigators concluded.

As OBOZREVATEL reported, on 11 July the High Anti-Corruption Court considered a motion to extend the detention period for former Supreme Court head Vsevolod Knyazev, who is suspected of bribery. Knyazev was kept in custody for another two months — until 8 September 2023, with the possibility of posting bail of 75 million UAH.