The State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine (SBI) has initiated two criminal proceedings against Vitaliy Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Center (ACC). The decision was made in connection with allegations of alleged forgery of documents and evasion of military service.
Vitaliy Shabunin, who heads the Anti-Corruption Center, is a well-known public activist and figure in Ukrainian political life. However, a significant controversy has recently arisen around him, which has led to the opening of criminal proceedings.
Journalist Volodymyr Boyko announced this on Facebook.
He noted that cases were opened against Shabunin under Part 4 of Article 409 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine for evasion of military service and Part 1 of Article 358 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine for forgery of an official document.
According to Boyko, the second case is related to the fact that Shabunin provided the military unit where he was serving with several letters signed by the head of the NACP, Oleksandr Novikov, and the deputy head of the NACP, Artem Sytnyk, with a request to second soldier Shabunin to them.
He noted that after the situation became public, the NACP leadership began to officially assure that such letters had never been sent and that Shabunin had prepared them himself.
"I think that the leadership of the NACP is lying and these letters are real. However, this does not affect the qualification of the actions of the commander of the military unit, who, having illegally seconded soldier Shabunin to the NACP, paid him 53 thousand UAH every month. — 23 thousand UAH of cash support and 30 thousand UAH of additional remuneration for, supposedly, the performance of combat missions. These missions, as far as I understand, consisted in the fact that soldier Shabunin took out empty bottles from Sytnyk's office," Boyko's post says.
Vitaliy Shabunin confirmed this information in a comment to NV, noting that two criminal proceedings were indeed opened against him.
In December, the investigating judge of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv ordered the State Bureau of Investigation to register a statement about the commission of a criminal offense on the grounds of forgery of documents and evasion of military service by Vitaliy Shabunin.
The relevant resolution was adopted upon the complaint of the head of the NGO "Public Council of Integrity" Rostyslav Kravets, who in his appeal asked to verify the facts that Shabunin was allegedly enlisted in the military unit, but did not complete military service, and also forged the documents on the basis of which he was on a business trip.
