The case against MP Sergei Leshchenko regarding the purchase of an apartment for $350 thousand will be resumed.
The head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, Nazar Kholodnitsky, stated this today during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada.
The head of the SAPO said this in response to Leshchenko’s own question regarding whether the published records from Kholodnytsky’s office correspond to reality.
“A lot of people want to speculate on the records in their office... Now let’s dot the i’s. For two years they have been trying to discredit me as the head of SAP and say that I am somehow different. Why? Because, Mr. Sergei, I was against some kind of analytical report replacing the production of your apartment for 350 thousand dollars,” he said.
The head of the SAP added that now a criminal case has been opened against deputy Leshchenko.
"Better late than never. This proceeding has been registered and I expect from the investigative authorities how it will end, because the analysis of income and expenses does not allow you to purchase an apartment in the center of Kyiv,” Kholodnitsky concluded.
Let us recall that in 2016 the Prosecutor General’s Office carried out a pre-trial investigation against Leshchenko in criminal proceedings on suspicion of illegal enrichment through his acquisition of an elite apartment.
On this occasion, Leshchenko appealed to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption with a request to check his purchase of an apartment. Then the court closed the case, finding that Leshchenko’s actions constituted an administrative, but not a criminal, offense.