Ivakhnenko, a suspect in Operation "Carthage": I knew nothing about any criminal organization
Yelyzaveta Ivakhnenko, a suspect in the NABU and SAPO operation "Carthage," commented on the charges against her.
She made this statement during a hearing at the High Anti-Corruption Court, according to Censor.NET.
What is known?
"I don't know anything about any criminal organization, its existence, or my involvement in it—I actually doubt it even exists; I knew nothing about it," she said.
She also confirmed that she knows Kropyva.
Ivakhnenko declined to answer questions about the nature of her relationship with Kropyva or whether they lived together.
"I think not all of the conversations were actually portrayed as they really were. I have doubts about the full context of these conversations," she added.
Ivakhnenko also explained why she was in Lviv at the time of her arrest.
"I was going on vacation. I planned to spend one day in Lviv and then go to Odesa. I’m a graduate student, so I needed to go to the university to fill out all my course logs. After Lviv, I intended to head to Odesa. This information is also available at Ukrzaliznytsia—kvytok," she explained.
Ivakhnenko is a student in Odesa.
What led up to this?
- 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.
- The High Anti-Corruption Court imposed a preventive measure on OPG official Kropyva.
