HACC has imposed preventive measure on Kropyva in case involving fraudulent call centers – remand in custody with option of bail set at 120 million hryvnias
The High Anti-Corruption Court has imposed a preventive measure on Serhii Kropyva, deputy head of the Department of International Cooperation at the Office of the Prosecutor General, who is suspected of covering up the activities of fraudulent call centres. The court ruled that he should remain in custody until 2 November, with the option of posting bail of 120 million hryvnias.
This was reported by Censor.NET with a link to the live stream of the court hearing.
If a bail is posted for Kropyva, the following obligations, among others, will apply:
- surrender his passports for travel abroad;
- refrain from communicating with certain individuals, in particular Prosecutor General Kravchenko, his deputy Vdovichenko, and other involved individuals;
- appear whenever summoned by a detective, a prosecutor, or a court.
As a reminder, a prosecutor from the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) asked the High Anti-Corruption Court to impose a preventive measure in the form of pretrial detention, with the option of bail set at 200 million hryvnias, on Serhii Kropyva, deputy head of the Department of International Cooperation, who is accused of covering up fraudulent call centers.
Operation ‘Carthage’
- As a reminder, earlier "Ukrainska Pravda", citing its own sources, reported that NABU and the SAPO were allegedly conducting searches at the homes of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, his deputy Maria Vdovichenko, and the head of the Odesa Regional State Administration, Oleh Kiper.
- On 4 September, NABU and the SAPO announced suspected "protection rackets" within the Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG) involving a network of so-called call centres that swindle people out of money.
- According to media reports, NABU and the SAPO have detained Serhii Kropyva, deputy head of the OPG’s Department of International Legal Cooperation.
- Prior to his current post at the OPG, Kropyva served as Deputy Head of the Odesa Regional State Administration, working alongside Oleh Kiper.
- Against this backdrop, NABU has announced a new operation called ‘Carthage’.
- The Office of the Prosecutor General has stated that it will suspend the employee who is under investigation for possible involvement in ‘providing protection for a network’ of fraudulent call centres and the legalisation of assets.
- According to updated information, NABU and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) have uncovered a criminal organisation whose members systematically received unlawful benefits from fraudulent call centres and laundered millions. The organiser of the scheme turned out to be one of the heads of a structural unit within the Office of the Prosecutor General.
- Recordings of a criminal group of OPG staff were also published.
- Later, the Office of the Prosecutor General confirmed that searches had been carried out at the homes of Prosecutor General Kravchenko and his deputy.
