Chairman of the Supreme Court of Ukraine arrested for corruption

Kyiv, May 16. — Chairman of the Supreme Court of Ukraine Vsevolod Knyazev has been arrested in the course of a $2.7 million bribery investigation, Oleksandr Klymenko, a senior official in charge of the corruption process, told a press conference in the capital.

“This is the largest case involving the judiciary,” said Serhiy Krivonos, head of the national anti-corruption department.

According to anti-corruption officials, Ukrainian billionaire Konstantin Zhevago, whom Ukraine is seeking extradition from France, has negotiated with a law firm to pay a $2.7 million bribe to the Supreme Court.

With a net worth of $1.4 billion, Dzhevago is the fifth richest person in Ukraine. The owner of the mining group Ferrexpo, this former MP has been wanted by Ukrainian justice for several years for “financial offences,” according to the German news agency DW.

He is accused of embezzling $113 million from his bank Finance and Credit, which went bankrupt in 2015. He was arrested in France in December 2022 and released under judicial control the following month.

Fighting corruption, a ubiquitous evil in Ukraine, is one of the conditions for joining the European Union (EU).

According to RT, with the arrest of Knyazev, a “mass case of corruption” was opened in the leadership of the Supreme Court and with reference to the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada or the parliament of Ukraine Oleksiy Goncharenko, the houses of 18 Supreme Court judges are also being searched.

At the same time, according to the local media Strana, citing its sources in law enforcement agencies, the bribe for which Knyazev was arrested was delivered by oligarch Konstantin Zhevago, whom France refuses to send to Ukraine and was released on bail of $1 million and a ban to leave the country.

Source: Juventud Rebelde

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