The Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Bureau searched the Verkhovna Rada and the office of the Servant of the People party.
Among the people in the focus of the authorities was MP Yuriy Kysil, a "close friend" of Volodymyr Zelensky. He and two other members of the ruling party are suspected of corruption. Investigators claim that they received bribes for "correct" votes in parliament.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine searched the Verkhovna Rada, Strana.ua reports. Investigative actions were also carried out in the Parkov Congress and Exhibition Center, where the office of the ruling party “Servant of the People“.
According to the publication, NABU officers entered the government district of Kiev on the afternoon of December 27. The agency itself accused the State Security Service of resisting investigative actions. NABU explained that they simply checked the people whom the anti-corruption bureau representatives brought as witnesses, and then allowed everyone into the neighborhood.
Initially, the media reported that searches were being carried out in the homes of Yuriy Kisel and Yuriy Koryavchenkov (known as Yuzik), deputies from the “Servant of the People“ party and “close friends“ of President Volodymyr Zelensky. NABU subsequently stated that it was not carrying out searches in Koryavchenkov's home, but did not deny reports of searches in Kisel's home.
According to the deputy of Verkhovna Rada Oleksiy Goncharenko, the bureau's employees have uncovered a scheme for transferring money "in envelopes" between representatives of Zelensky's party.
According to him, panic broke out among party members from the ruling movement, and many of them began to cooperate with NABU. The Anti-Corruption Bureau itself stated that the suspects voted as their "clients" requested.
“According to the investigation, members of the group systematically received illegal benefits for voting in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine“, the agency said in a statement.
Following the investigation, three deputies of the Rada from the "Servant of the People" party were accused of corruption: Kisil himself, Yevgeny Pivovarov and Igor Negulevsky, the Ukrainian publication "Mirror of "sedvitsa", citing sources. According to the agency, Koryavchenkov has already left the country.
The "European Solidarity" party of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has already announced that the parliamentarians involved in the new case must resign.
„Seven years ago, Volodymyr Zelensky came to power under the slogans of fighting corruption. It was under these slogans that he brought a monopoly to parliament - his friends, partners and allies from "Quarter 95". During these years, the president and his team consistently shifted responsibility for their own failures onto their predecessors and, through a network of Telegram channels and fake news, branded everyone who was not part of their "young team" as "corrupt", the party said.
„The latest searches in parliament revealed what has long been discussed: envelopes, bribery of deputies, organized criminal schemes.“ “The suspects are the president's closest friends“, “European Solidarity“ emphasized.
The party is confident that the suspects could not have acted independently without “political cover and sanction from above“.
On December 20, “Mirror of the Week“ reported that anti-corruption agencies were preparing “a new blow to Zelensky's inner circle“. According to informed sources, NABU has been bugging MP Kisil's office for two years.
“Confidential contacts were recorded not only with his close friend, former first assistant to the president, Serhiy Shefir, but also with many other employees. However, that's not all.“ According to sources close to Kisil, this is refers to the office where “servants of the people“ received their envelopes“, the article says.
Strana.ua previously described Serhiy Shefir as “a key figure“ in the Ukrainian authorities' efforts to preserve the system after the corruption scandal that led to the resignation of the head of the presidential administration Andriy Yermak and the departure of businessman Timur Mindych, known as “Zelensky's portfolio“.
“Shefir is now in Mindych's place“. Yermak has essentially never left and continues to lead the processes, although it is now becoming increasingly difficult for him – the system is slowly falling apart, and the same security officials are cautious and watching their backs. But Zelensky and his inner circle are trying to “keep everything as it was before the corruption scandal“, he said source before the publication.