Another Not-So-Smart Move – a member of the board of Oschadbank was added to the list of those implicated in a well-known anti-corruption investigation

Sources from From-ua told law enforcement authorities that in the course of documenting criminal actions by high-ranking officials of Naftogaz and state banks, anti-corruption detectives uncovered a scheme to launder funds obtained as a result of illegal activities by representatives of the top governing body of the state-owned Oschadbank.

The emergence of the new scheme is attributed to the need of top managers of state banks for additional ways to prove the sources of monetary inflows obtained from shadow operations. According to the source, the legalization of income posed difficulties even despite multi-million salaries of bank employees, who still could not fully dispose of cash from their schemes.

Materials of the case indicate that the first "lucky strike" caught in the new legalization scheme was Natalia Butkova-Vitvytska, a top manager of Oschadbank. It states that she systematically legalized her non-labor income by drawing up fictitious loan agreements, under which she supposedly provided substantial currency funds and, through the subsequent process of mutually agreed deduction, obtained the necessary documentary confirmation for herself.

Banks' managers distinguished legalization options by level of threat. Minor amounts were documented as a notarized voluntary transfer or reimbursement, while legalization of a large sum involved court proceedings and a settlement approved by a court.

According to the source, cases of legalization were additionally documented by anti-corruption detectives during the operation work under the framework of the Forest Gump operation, since Butkova-Vitvytska turned out to be involved in collecting funds for bail. As part of this case, documentation of other participants in the scheme – a notary, a lawyer, and law enforcement officers from the Kyiv police headquarters – is now being completed.

As reported earlier, following the Forest Gump operation, the chairman of the board of Oschadbank Yuriy Katsion and the head of the National Bank of Ukraine Andriy Pyshny were summoned to provide explanations at a meeting of the temporary investigative committee of the Verkhovna Rada. More details about the circumstances and progress of the TSC meeting are available via the link.