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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
In the evening 4 of September, NABU and SAP began searches at the office of the Attorney General Ruslan Kravchenko, his deputy Maria Vdovychenko, and the head of Odesa Regional Military Administration Oleh Kiper. The investigative actions are taking place within a special operation to expose a network of fraudulent call centers, in which a criminal organization led by an official of the Office of the General Prosecutor is involved in shielding. The searches at the General Prosecutor's Office began on Friday, and the authorities promised to disclose details of the operation later. At the same time, it became known that one of the heads of the cyber department of the General Prosecutor's Office was detained.
According to sources cited by Ukrainska Pravda in business circles, NABU and SAP detained the deputy head of the Department of International Legal Cooperation of the General Prosecutor's Office, Serhiy Kropyva. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office said they are conducting a special operation to expose a criminal organization involved in shielding a network of fraudulent call centers and laundering assets.
"NABU and SAP are conducting a special operation to expose a criminal organization led by an official of the Office of the General Prosecutor of Ukraine, involved in shielding a network of fraudulent call centers and laundered assets," NABU stated.
The Office of the General Prosecutor stated that it would fully assist anti-corruption bodies in the investigation into the operation of fraudulent call centers. At the same time, the OGP informed that it would suspend an employee whose possible involvement in illegal activity is being checked.
The state is intensifying pressure on the organizers of call centers.
According to available information, the call centers now pursued by NABU and SAP were managed by Maria Vdovichenko — the first deputy attorney general Kravchenko, a person from Andriy Yermak's circle. Money was attributed to Dmytro Borzykh. Over a month, sums reached 5–7 million dollars.
Dmytro Borzykh belongs to Kravchenko's closest circle; the two of them worked together with Anatoliy Matios in the military prosecutor's office. Payments were made in Telegram channels, with various bots and QR codes also used. The scheme itself was devised by the detainee today, Kropyva. He was the first to come under the blow of NABU and SAP.
Overall, the problem of telephone fraud in Ukraine remains massive for years: criminal call centers mass-dial citizens under the pretense of the 'Security Service of the Bank' or government payments, forcing people to transfer funds to accounts under their control. The European Union has been pressuring for more than two years to stop the practice of telephone fraud.
There is currently no official confirmation regarding the details of the special operation and the scope of suspicions toward OGP officials from the leadership of anti-corruption bodies. Investigative actions at the Office of the General Prosecutor continue, and law enforcement promises to reveal details of the operation in the near future.
Earlier, Informator reported that the president sent to the Rada bills to strengthen liability for organizing fraudulent call centers and protecting people from unlawful operations with bank accounts. These changes were intended to give law enforcement tools to prosecute not only operators of such centers but also those who fund and organize this activity.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "НАБУ та САП прийшли з обшуками до генпрокурора Кравченка, його заступниці та голови Одеської ОВА". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Informator.
