Ukraine supreme court chief justice accused of bribery

Ukrainian authorities have detained the supreme court chief justice for allegedly having taken bribes from an oligarch, as Kyiv steps up its anti-corruption efforts while at war with Russia.

Vsevolod Kniaziev was accused of receiving a bribe worth $2.7 million (€2.48 million), according to Ukrainian anti-graft prosecutors who said that the money was a “reward” for a ruling made “in favour of the owner of the Finance and Credit group”. That group is controlled by mining tycoon Kostyantyn Zhevago.

The high-profile case marks the latest in a series of investigations targeting the country’s oligarchs, as Ukrainian officials have promised to further crack down on corruption, a condition for continued western financial and military support, as well as integration into the EU and Nato military alliance.

“The head of the supreme court has been detained and measures are being taken to check other individuals for involvement in the criminal activity,” Oleksandr Omelchenko, a prosecutor at Ukraine’s specialised anti-corruption prosecutor’s office (Sapo) said on Tuesday.

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The supreme court removed Mr Kniaziev from its post on Tuesday, with a new chief justice likely to be voted in soon. “This is a dark day in the history of the court. We must be worthy and withstand such a blow,” the court said.

Mr Kniaziev could not be reached for comment.

Details of the case, including photographs of piles of cash on a couch and diagrams of the alleged bribe scheme, were laid out by Sapo in a joint statement with Ukraine’s anti-corruption bureau, Nabu.

Mr Zhevago has been fighting extradition to Ukraine related to a separate alleged bank fraud case. His press service denied his involvement in the alleged bribe and also denied claims by authorities that the supreme court investigation relates to a legal battle over assets belonging to his London-listed iron ore producer Ferrexpo, Ukrainian media reported.

A spokesperson for Mr Zhevago did not immediately respond to Financial Times requests for comment.

It was not immediately clear how the incident would affect the court, which was reformed before Volodymyr Zelenskiy Zelenskiy took over as president in 2019. Zelenskiy’s administration has yet to fully reboot the country’s tainted constitutional court, with which he clashed before Russia’s full-blown invasion.

For decades, Ukraine’s oligarchs used their media and political influence to corrupt state institutions and bolster their businesses. But their influence has been weakened by anti-corruption measures and damage to their corporate interests by Russia’s war.

On Monday, Ukraine’s state security service (SBU) said it had issued a notice of suspicion to Dmitry Firtash, another oligarch, accusing him of embezzling nearly $500 million worth of natural gas. Firtash, exiled in Vienna where he has fought extradition charges to the US since 2014, denied the claims of wrongdoing through a statement issued by his Group DF holding, describing the inquiry as part of an “ongoing campaign of corrupt pressure”.

The oligarch is a former partner of Russia’s Gazprom in the multi-billion-dollar business of supplying Ukraine with gas, and was sanctioned by Kyiv last year.

The SBU has this year also secured court orders freezing the assets of another Ukrainian-sanctioned oligarch, Vadim Novinsky.

On Tuesday, yet another Ukrainian sanctioned oligarch, Pavel Fuks, in a Telegram statement described a new SBU case against him as “groundless”.

“This once again demonstrates that [authorities are] misleading the president of Ukraine and Ukrainian society, guided by their own interests, and not the interests of the Ukrainian society, which is a demonstration of exceptional cynicism during a full-scale war,” he added.

– Additional reporting by Sam Jones.

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023