The Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office has refuted reports of a meeting between its head, Mykola Meret, and Serhii Kropyva, a suspect in the ‘Carthage’ case and former deputy head of the Prosecutor General’s Office Department of International Co-operation, as well as a former deputy.
The agency said this in response to an enquiry from the Schemes project.
Earlier in court, Kropyva insisted that NABU detained him in Lviv during a business trip and that he had allegedly met the head of the regional prosecutor’s office and other officials. However, when asked to give Meret’s first name and patronymic, the former official admitted he could not remember them. An SAP prosecutor immediately rejected this version, noting that, according to the investigation, the official was simply holidaying in the city with his civil partner.
The Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that its head was at his workplace, had no meetings or telephone conversations with Kropyva, and that there is no information about his contacts with other employees of the institution.
What is known about Operation ‘Carthage’
- NABU and SAP said on 4 September that they were conducting a special operation to expose a criminal organisation “headed by an official of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine”.
- Anti-corruption agencies said members of the organisation may be involved in “providing protection” to a network of fraudulent call centres and in laundering assets.
- The Office of the Prosecutor General responded to the possible involvement of one of its employees in work with fraudulent call centres, saying all circumstances must be established by the investigation.
- The Prosecutor General denied any involvement in the scheme and ordered all prosecutors investigating cases involving illegal call centres to undergo polygraph tests. Kravchenko also submitted his resignation.
- In a NABU video, the organiser was an official of the OPG, referred to as the “Chancellor”, as well as “Boss”, “Muse” and other participants in the scheme. Overall, NABU said it had exposed five individuals in proceedings under Article 255 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (creation and leadership of a criminal organisation, as well as participation in it) and Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (legalisation (laundering) of property).
- On 6 September, a court remanded OPG employee Serhii Kropyva in custody. On 8 September, a preventive measure was chosen for a trusted associate of the “Chancellor”.
- Later, the first deputy of former Prosecutor General Kravchenko, Mariia Vdovychenko, resigned from her post.
- On 15 September, the Verkhovna Rada backed Kravchenko’s dismissal from office. Before that, he left the country overnight.
- On 16 September, the Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court upheld Kropyva’s preventive measure unchanged — he will remain in custody with the alternative of posting bail of UAH 120 million.