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🇺🇦 Ukraine /Crime & Justice

Ukraine's prosecutor general denies protecting scam call centres and orders internal checks

From Ukrainska Pravda · () Ukrainian

Translated from Ukrainian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Official statement Under investigation
  • Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko denied directing officials to protect illegal call centres and ordered checks at the prosecutor's office.
  • Staff in departments handling related investigations and procedural supervision must undergo polygraph tests, while one employee under investigation has been suspended.
  • Kravchenko said Ukrainian law enforcement agencies conducted more than 1,050 searches and shut down about 340 call centres over the past year.

Ukraine's Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko has rejected allegations that he protected illegal call centres and ordered a sweeping internal review at the Office of the Prosecutor General.

Kravchenko said he never instructed anyone to facilitate the operations of scam call centres and had not used his powers for that purpose. He ordered checks into the international cooperation department, where a suspect worked, and the cybercrime unit. Employees in departments responsible for procedural supervision and investigations involving scam call centres must take polygraph tests.

An OPG employee under investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has been suspended. Kravchenko said preparations were under way for the employee's dismissal. He promised personnel changes and other employment decisions based on the checks, along with criminal-procedural measures where justified.

I did not give instructions to facilitate the operations of illegal call centres and have not made use of my powers as prosecutor general for this purpose.

· Ruslan KravchenkoUkraine's prosecutor general denied allegations that he protected illegal call centres.

Kravchenko said law enforcement agencies had conducted more than 1,050 searches over the past 12 months and shut down about 340 call centres and more than 5,000 operator workstations. He also said anti-corruption investigators had full access to his office during investigative actions and were not obstructed.

Separately, he denied that a safe shown in photographs circulating in the media was located at the prosecutor's office or connected to him. He also rejected claims that he had disappeared, saying he was at work on September 5 and continued working the following day. The office had earlier said that detectives from the anti-corruption bureau searched premises used by Kravchenko, after initially stating that no searches had taken place at his home or office.

I was at my workplace on 5 September and continued working on 6 September.

· Ruslan KravchenkoKravchenko rejected claims that he had disappeared.
About this summary

Originally published by Ukrainska Pravda in Ukrainian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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