The Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Semen Kryvonos, is being called upon to conduct an official investigation into reports of a possible leak of agency information by his employees. Vitaly Shabunin, the chairman of the board of the Anti-corruption Center, made such an appeal.
"It has been the second month since the notification of the NABU detective about the leak of investigation materials. However, Kryvonos has not yet started an official investigation into the facts made public by journalists (and not only about them)," Shabunin wrote.
Investigative journalists of Bihus.Info reported that confidential information about the work of NABU — internal documents of the bureau, resolutions, screenshots of correspondence, etc. — was "leaked" by those involved in the investigations of NABU itself.
Evidence of this was found in the phones seized by the investigation of businessman Yury Golyk, who called himself "an ideologue of "big construction". According to Bihus.Info, the information came to Golyk through his associate Giorhiy Birkadze, the former chairman of Brovarsk RDA, who is now called an adviser to the President's Office. NABU detective Valery Polyuga is also called involved.
The journalists also claim that the findings and information from the "leaks" indicate the probable involvement of the NABU leadership, in particular the first deputy director of the NABU, Gizo Uglavy.
At the end of May, it became known that the Department of Internal Control of NABU is investigating a possible leak of information under Articles 364 and 387 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and even searched the home of an NABU detective, but not the agency's premises. Proceedings were started after a memo from a whistleblower-employee of NABU. During the investigation, the director of NABU removed Uglava from his duties, based on his statement about a possible conflict of interests.
The American publication NBC News reported that the issue of combating corruption caused tension in the relations between Kyiv and Washington, and the recent events at NABU became an example of the constant need for reforms.
Shabunin said that after Bihus.Info's investigation, an "active campaign to save Uglava" began in Telegram channels. "The second month of the crisis of confidence in the NABU leadership is underway. It is becoming more and more likely that the problem is not so much in Uglav as in Kryvonos," Shabunin noted.
