"Gambling — Is That Also Your Area?": NABU and SAP Recorded Conversations of 'Carthage' Figures About New Areas of 'Protection'

"Gambling — Is That Also Your Area?": NABU and SAP Recorded Conversations of 'Carthage' Figures About New Areas of 'Protection'"

Figures in the “Carthage” case may have been "protecting" not only fraudulent call centers but also the gambling business. In one of the conversations, a recording held by the media, a voice that investigators say belongs to the suspect in the case, Ivan Tymoshenko, says that gambling is "also their area."

This was reported by Slidstvo.Info citing sources in law enforcement agencies.

Former head of the Department of Information Technologies of the Office of the Prosecutor General Ivan Tymoshenko was charged as part of the NABU and SAP operation “Carthage.” 22 October the High Anti-Corruption Court chose pretrial restraint for him in the form of detention with the alternative of posting bail in the amount of 8 million UAH.

Tymoshenko has maintained friendly relations with the suspect in organizing the "protection" scheme for fraudulent call centers, Serhiy Kropyva, at least since 2020. Since then they worked together in leadership positions, including at the National Police, Odesa Regional State Administration, and the Office of the Prosecutor General.

Law enforcement officers believe Tymoshenko helped Kropyva organize the scheme's operations. According to the investigation, for this purpose he appointed Danylo Slipchuk to the Office of the Prosecutor General's Department of Information Technologies, through whom participants received cash from call centers, exchanged it for other currencies, and converted it into cryptocurrency.

In addition, Tymoshenko helped recruit other people into the scheme. In particular, sources for Slidstvo.Info assert that he searched for "couriers" who collected cash from call center representatives. To hide these operations, they used passwords for meetings and cars with stolen license plates for transporting money.

Allegedly, Tymoshenko passed bribes from the "offices'" representatives to Kropyva and distributed them among other members of the criminal organization.

His position gave him access to the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations, which contains information about criminal proceedings. Law enforcement officers believe this helped scheme participants monitor the situation around the call centers.

Slidstvo.Info also has a conversation about fraudulent call centers and gambling. On it are voices that investigators say belong to Ivan Tymoshenko and Deputy Head of the State Tax Service Ihor Panchenko:

P.: And this, wait, OnlyFans — understood. And what about that thing of yours that’s popular? Scammers, call centers — is that your area?

T.: Well, us.

P.: The phones, yours, right?

T.: Well, we investigate who, what that is.

P.: Listen, okay, and what about gambling, online gambling — is that also your area?

T.: Well, yes.

P.: Oh, and do you work with those, with PlayCity? That new s**t at the Ministry of Digital Transformation that regulates gambling? No?

T.: No, in principle we can.

P.: So you don’t handle that? That’s your field.

T.: We currently have some content...

P.: But there’s money there, man. There’s f**king a lot, brother. It’s just f**ked up. It’s not a single case.

T.: No, well.

P.: There are hundreds of those, there’s a whole army.

(Note: the Department of Information Technologies of the Office of the Prosecutor General, where Tymoshenko worked until 11 September, provides digital transformation, technical support, and information security for prosecutorial bodies, and does not investigate fraud or gambling.)

In addition, Slidstvo.Info has another conversation in which, according to investigators, voices resemble those of Tymoshenko and Kropyva:

K.: What’s up?

T.: Vasylovych, about the thing we talked about, that they’re “pumping,” about what.

K.: Price?

T.: Yes, the price.

K.: Well, probably in any case. Well, that’s obvious even to fools.

T.: But Dania already reviewed everything, said: we’re not there.

K.: Good that there are people who...

T.: Well, like, for the piece it’s fine, but with 800 how many? 10 people?

K.: Ah, that’s 800 numbers, like, right?

T.: Well, 860 numbers, and there are 10 pieces.

K.: But there are many who haven’t registered, haven’t completed registration in their name. Ivan Oleksandrovych (laughs). Well, there are, f*ck, smarter ones.