The Ukrainian authorities searched/raided a number of elites and notables today. Including Ihor Kolomoisky. Ukrainska Pravda has the details:
The Security Service of Ukraine and the Bureau of Economic Security are searching the home of oligarch Igor Kolomoisky in Dnipro.
The investigation concerns the machinations around Ukrtatnafta and Ukrnafta.
According to the source, it is about the waste of oil products on 40 billion hryvnias and evasion of customs duties on huge amounts.
More at the link. Kolomoiski is also under investigation here in the US. He is also a past governor of Dnipro and owned the network that President Zelenskyy’s TV show about a comedian who becomes president of Ukraine aired. Kolomoiski had been considered to be a Zelenskyy benefactor and ally, but the latter has been distancing himself from the former for several years. The former interior minister’s home was also raided:
Ukraine has launched a fresh wave of anti-corruption raids on high-profile figures, including one of the country’s richest men, Ihor Kolomoisky.
The home of former interior minister Arsen Avakov was also searched, as part of the apparent purge.
Ukraine has launched an anti-corruption drive and officials said the leaders of the customs service had been fired.
In a statement that made no mention of the tycoon, the economic security bureau said it had exposed large-scale embezzlement schemes and tax evasion worth 40bn hyrivnia ($1bn; £880m) by the former management of Ukraine’s two biggest oil firms, Ukranafta and Ukrtatnafta.
There was no initial comment from Mr Kolomoisky, whose companies had a substantial stake in both companies. They were among several strategic businesses transferred to state ownership last November. Weeks earlier, Mr Kolomoisky’s flat was searched in western Ukraine.
In a separate raid, the former interior minister, Arsen Avakov, told Ukrainian media that his home had been searched as part of an inquiry into Ukraine’s purchase of Airbus helicopters six years ago.
Mr Avakov was quoted as saying that nothing had been found and all the contracts had been approved at the time.
The move followed a deadly helicopter crash outside a kindergarten in a suburb of the capital Kyiv that left 14 people dead, including the interior minister, his entourage and a child on the ground.
Referring to the latest anti-corruption swoop as “spring landings”, Mr Arakhamia listed further investigations, including the dismissal of the entire leadership of the customs service. MP Oleksiy Honcharenko said the acting head and two deputies had been fired.
The main tax office in Kyiv was also raided.
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump:
War for Ukraine Day 342: The Anti-Corruption Initiative Picks Up SteamPost + Comments (39)