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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The Augean Stables of the State Bureau of Investigation
While Ukrainian social networks and media are abuzz with discussion of the corruption adventures of Head of the President’s Office Andriy Yermak — whose brother traded in government positions — Volodymyr Zelenskyy is trying to feign Olympian calm.
And to every question he answers that, they say, let the State Bureau of Investigation deal with it, which will certainly find out whether there are corruptionists in the president’s circle or whether this is slander by political enemies. So it’s worth learning what is happening now at the SBI, which has been without a director since December 2019 and whose work is now paralyzed by the total reduction of investigators and the constant change of leadership.
However, there are islands of stability in the SBI: on 26 March 2020 the State Bureau of Investigation finished accepting documents to participate in the competition for leadership positions, but the results of the future competition are already known and we will gladly tell you who will win it and head the investigations into corruption in the President’s Office.
The vote counting for the future competition is being handled by SBI First Deputy Director Oleksandr Babikov — a true multitasker. Oleksandr Petrovych not only, together with Oleksandr Sokolov, runs the SBI, but he is also the lead strategist in the Office of the Prosecutor General and is currently drafting a project for a new structure of the OPG, staffing schedules, and so on. This is all the more commendable given that no one in prosecutorial circles had previously said a good word about Babikov’s intellectual level. But now everything has changed, and against the backdrop of the personnel who remain in law-enforcement agencies, even Babikov looks almost like an intellectual.
So it has already been decided that the competition for the position of head of the SBI’s Main Investigative Department will absolutely coincidentally be won by Maksym Borysovych Borchakovskyi, who currently holds the position of head of the First Investigative Division of the Third Directorate for the Organization of Pretrial Investigations. It will be Borchakovskyi who will investigate the figures from the “Yermak tapes” and render the verdict as to whether there were signs of a crime in the actions of the Head of the President’s Office.
Fortune turned toward Maksym Borysovych not only because of his phenomenal spinelessness, obsequiousness, and ability to carry out any superior’s instruction, but also because he is the chair of the SBI commission for selecting operational staff and will very soon choose Ihor Oleksandrovych Heida as head of the SBI’s Main Operational Directorate, with Ihor Oleksandrovych Kalinko as Heida’s deputy.
Both Heida and Kalinko are colleagues from service in the SBU Directorate in Kharkiv region. Although Heida has also headed the Kharkiv regional territorial branch of the Anti-Monopoly Committee of Ukraine and worn police epaulettes. And even more — it was he who in February 2014 secretly smuggled into Russia Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Vitaliy Zakharchenko and the head of the Internal Security Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Oleksandr Tulaiev. And it happened like this:
Ihor Oleksandrovych Heida served in the SBU from 1996, and in 2009 he took the position of deputy chief of the main counterintelligence protection of the economy department of the SBU Directorate in Kharkiv region. But in 2010 he was dismissed due to “service incompatibility.” However, in 2012 his godfather Tulaiev, who headed the Department of Internal Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, brought Heida into his service and appointed him head of the Internal Security Department in Kharkiv region. The details of the stormy biography of the future head of the SBI’s Main Operational Directorate are set out in the materials of the criminal proceeding that came to the SBI from the former Department of Special Investigations of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine. These details are so eloquent that they deserve extensive quotation:
“By the order of the Head of the SBU dated 15.09.2010 No. 1198-o/s, Colonel Heida I.0 was imposed a disciplinary sanction in the form of dismissal from military service for official irresponsibility. Subsequently, by the order of the Head of the SBU of Ukraine dated 30.09.2010 No. 1259-o/s, Colonel Heida I.O. was dismissed from military service due to official irresponsibility. In 12.10.21010, by the order of the SBU Directorate in Kharkiv region No. 241-o/s, Colonel Heida I.O. was removed from the lists of SBU personnel. The grounds for Heida I.O.’s dismissal were a disciplinary violation for falsifying materials, namely the commission by him of offenses and abuses of power and official position during the period 2008–2010 years. In particular, Heida I.O., in order to facilitate third parties, namely the head of the First Division of the Investigative Department of the SBU, General Faynytskyi E.Ye., in the seizure of two foreign-made cars — “Lexus GX” — 470 (which belongs to his wife Faynytska A.V.) and “Mercedes-Benz” C 300 from the Yahodyn customs — arranged their delivery to Kharkiv and subsequent transfer to interested persons. This fact took place in 2008.”
Materials regarding the initiation of criminal cases against Colonel Heida for abuse of power or official position by a military serviceman, exceeding authority by a military serviceman, as well as official forgery — crimes provided for in Articles 423, 424, 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — were sent for initiation of criminal proceedings and further investigation to the military prosecutor’s office of the Kharkiv Garrison.
In 2010, after the change of the President of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, and the appointment of Heida’s godfather Tulaiev as head of the Internal Security Department of the Tax Service of Ukraine, the military prosecutor’s office of the Kharkiv Garrison 10.06.2010 year refused to initiate criminal proceedings regarding Heida I.O. for abuse of power or official position by a military serviceman, exceeding authority by a military serviceman, and official forgery — crimes provided for in Articles 423, 424, 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — on the grounds of p.2 Art. 6 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.
According to information received from employees of the Internal Security Department of the State Guard, in the period from 21 to 25 February 2014, then-employees of the Internal Security Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kharkiv region (then-head of the Internal Security Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kharkiv region Colonel Heida I.O. (who led the operation), Major Sokolov O.O. (who directly commanded the operation during its conduct), employees Kramarenko A., Tsekhmystrov D., Kalinko I., Zherebtsov D., Kozlenko S. and another 2 unidentified police officers), through the Hoptivka checkpoint of the Kharkiv Border Detachment of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine transported then-Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Zakharchenko V.Yu. and head of the Internal Security Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Tulaiev O.S. with their families to the territory of the Russian Federation.
According to the State Guard Internal Security Department, the operation was carried out as follows:
The vehicles in which Zakharchenko V.Yu. with his family and Tulaiev O.S. with his family were traveling were met on the border between Poltava and Kharkiv regions by armed officers of the Internal Security Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kharkiv region (according to received data, which can be checked against weapon issuance logs): Sokolov O.O. (in his personal Lexus, which he immediately sold after the operation), Kramarenko A. (in his personal Mitsubishi Pajero), Tsekhmystrov D., Kalinko I., Zherebtsov D., Kozlenko S. and another 2 unidentified police officers.
Under escort, the convoy immediately proceeded to the Hoptivka checkpoint where the above persons were transferred on foot (allegedly wearing balaclavas) through the cargo corridor of the checkpoint. According to unverified data, at the time of the crossing Zakharchenko V.Yu. and Tulaiev O.S. the checkpoint’s surveillance cameras did not work for more than 2 hours.
On Russian territory, Zakharchenko V.Yu. and Tulaiev O.S. were met by friends of Heida I.O. (allegedly they studied together at a military school).
The day after transporting these persons, on Heida I.O.’s orders, Sokolov O.O., together with the above employees of the Internal Security Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kharkiv region, escorted and transported across the state border of Ukraine at the Pletenkivka checkpoint of the Kharkiv Border Detachment of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine six cargo vehicles with the belongings of Zakharchenko V.Yu. and Tulaiev O.S. This operation was organized by then-head of the Vovchansk Regional Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kharkiv region Harmash V.P.”
Also, Borchakovskyi will absolutely coincidentally choose Heida’s subordinates as heads of departments that are part of the SBI’s Main Operational Directorate: Kharkiv native Oleksandr Kozlenko will become head of the Department for Operational Support of Investigations of Criminal Offenses Committed by Officials; the head responsible for operational support of investigations into criminal offenses committed by organized criminal groups and the detection of unjustified assets will be Yevhen Pryimak; and the head of the Department for Operational Support of Investigations of Criminal Offenses Committed by Law-Enforcement Officers and Judges will be the legendary Ruslan Biriukov.
In addition, the competition for the position of head of the Department for Investigating Criminal Offenses Committed by Servicemen (this Department is part of the Main Investigative Department and will be subordinate to the future head of the MID Borchakovskyi) will absolutely coincidentally be won by Yaroslav Lioshenko, who currently holds the position of ordinary investigator of the First Investigative Division of the Third Directorate for the Organization of Pretrial Investigations of the SBI. True, a small unpleasantness arose — by law Yaroslav Vadymovych must have at least 3 years of administrative experience, which he does not have anywhere near. But where is the law — and where is the SBI?
Lioshenko caught Babikov’s eye because of his cleverness displayed during the investigation of the criminal proceeding concerning former Chief of the General Staff Volodymyr Zamana. In February 2020 Lioshenko was supposed to notify Yanukovych with an in-absentia suspicion in that proceeding and reported the draft to Babikov. And then something happened — either Lioshenko did not see the elements of a crime in the ex-president’s actions, or Yanukovych went on the path of repentance and lost his social danger… Also left without an in-absentia suspicion were former defense ministers Pavlo Lebedyev and Dmytro Salamatin, and Zamana’s suspicion was never changed, although Lioshenko was supposed to have done so at the beginning of 2020. However, given that the procedural supervision in this proceeding was exercised by such an outstanding specialist in law as former Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Chumak, there is no reason to be surprised.
However, the ones who will still have to “pull the plow” will not be the heads of departments and main directorates but the rank-and-file investigators who directly carry out the tasks assigned to the SBI — investigating criminal proceedings. At the beginning of the year, 116 investigators worked in the SBI Central Office and another 279 in the territorial directorates. But on 3 March 2020, Acting SBI Director Iryna Venediktova, despite the fact that 681 positions were vacant in the Central Office (and another 268 in the territorial directorates), issued warnings of dismissal to all employees of the Central Office due to “reduction of civil service positions caused by a change in organizational structure.” Among those to be dismissed were about fifty investigators.
So the president need not worry about the results of the SBI’s investigation into the corruption scandal around the Yermak brothers — they are known in advance.
Andriy Pasichnyk
naspravdi.today
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Авгієві стайні Державного бюро розслідувань". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
