Many in the GPU want Lutsenko to resign
If the materials published in a number of Ukrainian media regarding the involvement of a number of senior Ukrainian officials in the withdrawal of Viktor Yanukovych’s funds from Ukraine are confirmed, this will cause irreparable damage to the entire line of state prosecution in the framework of criminal cases against the fugitive president, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at Telegram, Facebook, Classmates or In contact with
A source in the Prosecutor General’s Office, close to the investigation of cases against Yanukovych, told the Apostrophe publication about this, the Ukrainian News agency reports.
“In connection with this scandal, where this Investment Capital surfaced with the names of Gontareva, Pasenyuk and others, now all of our many years of work against Yanukovych have essentially been discredited. Who will now believe the Prosecutor General’s Office after this? How can we continue to convince Western partners of the need to arrest Yanukovych’s assets? Whose state treason will we even have to talk about in this case?” says an interlocutor from the GPU.
He also talked about what assessments are expressed on this topic by officials of the Prosecutor General’s Office in an informal setting: “Our people, who have already outlived many generals, warned the boss from the very beginning: sooner or later we will get into a big mess with this money from Yanukovych. Because, firstly, everything is very confusing there. And many current accounts are tied to these accounts. While the connection of these funds directly with Yanukovych is not yet very visible. Secondly, many of the new ones who came to office after Yanukovych have already had their eyes on this money. But since the case was tied to offshore companies, it was clear to many of us that sooner or later such a story could not help but surface in the foreign media. And then she surfaced. And now all that remains is to state: yes, we got ourselves into trouble, and big time.”
“Now it’s clear why one day they decided to start this rather slippery case of treason - instead of an open trial on corruption stories, which many insisted on,” the source further explained. “It turns out that there were very influential figures who were simply afraid to end up coming out to themselves.”
Explaining the current situation, the interlocutor suggested that “all politicians, including the president, can make the prosecutor’s office the most extreme in such a failure, since they will tell us that it was we who overlooked how the leadership of the National Bank is involved in these offshore frauds.” “At the same time, everyone else will pretend as if they were not involved in this disgrace,” he further notes.
As for other cases regarding Yanukovych, the source noted that “another alarming call was this whole strange story with the so-called. Georgian snipers.” “Again, due to stupidity or malicious intent, with these Georgians we lost the initiative from the very beginning. But we had to take everything and go on this Italian channel on the very first day, get testimony from journalists, prove that we are dealing with a fake and a provocation,” says the GPU employee. “But instead, we played the silent game for almost a month. Meanwhile, the version that actually disavows our work on Yanukovych over the years has gained momentum. A month passed before our management gave the go-ahead to study the issue. And only the other day we were finally able to interrogate one of the defendants accused by the Italians, Saakashvili, on this topic.”
Also, according to an interlocutor from the GPU, “the insufficient elaboration of the material by the group of prosecutors in the treason case became visible - the last public testimony of Yatsenyuk and Avakov turned into an interrogation by Yanukovych’s lawyers, during which the state prosecution also lost the initiative, receiving a series of unpleasant blows.” “Now it’s time to decide whether we will continue to allow them to play with us like this, or whether it’s time to more convincingly convey to these lawyers that this is, after all, a trial against Yanukovych, and not against the leaders of the Maidan,” he said.
“In fact, all this is happening because there is little trust within our department,” notes a source from the GPU. – Hence there is no coordinated work, little professional approach. But there is a lot of populism, which only undermined the authority of the department.” According to him, “employees with many years of experience in prosecutorial work, who really understand the situation, are simply afraid to openly express their point of view if it suddenly runs counter to the position of the prosecutor general. And he, who came here from outside the system, does not always understand at all what we are talking about. There is simply no one to give practical advice to a person. Everyone is quietly waiting for the president and deputies to think about it, and for the prosecutor’s office to be headed by a specialized specialist, not a politician.”
Let us remind you that the leader of the Movement of New Forces party, ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, previously stated that on January 9 he was interrogated by the prosecutor’s office in the case of executions on the Maidan and he had to testify regarding the information presented in a television investigation by Italian journalists.
Earlier it was reported that Yanukovych managed to withdraw $1,5 billion from Ukraine, and the investment company ICU (Investment Capital Ukraine), the founder and head of the board of directors of which was the former head of the National Bank Valeria Gontareva, helped him in this. This is stated in an investigation by Al Jazeera journalists with reference to the decision of the Kramatorsk District Court, which they published. “The court's decision details the complex network of companies that were used to siphon off the money, with ICU acting as an intermediary for the purchase of dollar-denominated bonds on behalf of eight Cypriot companies worth $1,5 billion,” the material emphasizes. According to the published secret verdict of the Kramatorsk District Court, between 2012 and 2014, ICU acted as an intermediary for the purchase of dollar-denominated bonds on behalf of eight Cypriot companies in the amount of $1,5 billion. Al Jazeera journalists emphasize that all these offshore companies have actually become a “pipeline” for pumping money out of Ukraine.”
At the same time, Ukrayinska Pravda reported in its investigation that, in addition to Gontareva, the co-founder of this company is also Makar Pasenyuk, who is characterized as “Poroshenko’s financier.” As “UP” found out, ICU previously accompanied the process of transferring the Roshen corporation to the so-called. “blind trust”. Also, according to “UP”, BPP deputies call Pasenyuk one of the most knowledgeable in Poroshenko’s business affairs. Earlier, Saakashvili also announced the investment banker’s closeness to Poroshenko.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.