A month has passed since June 10, when the National Anti-Corruption Bureau registered a high-profile criminal proceeding against its own employees. The case involves the disclosure of pre-trial investigation data and operational-search activities in criminal proceedings and operational-search cases of the NABU during 2021-2023. Documents related to investigations into corruption facts during the implementation of the presidential program “Great Construction” were “leaked.” As the media found out, the main beneficiary of these leaks turned out to be the curator of the “Great Construction” and former non-staff advisor to the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, Yuriy Holyk.

The case of the “leaks” features a colorful character – the head of the Brovary District State Administration in 2020-2021, and now businessman Heorhiy Birkadze. It was his correspondence with the person “Yaponets Valyera” (senior detective and head of the NABU detectives department Valeriy Polyuha) that was illustrated the other day by Bihus.info investigators.

In essence, Valeriy Polyuha is so far the only officially highlighted NABU employee who was searched by the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the National Police as part of this super-scandalous criminal story.

However, there is another important detail. On May 24, NABU Director Semen Kryvonos removed his first deputy Hizo Uhlava from performing his official duties “to ensure an objective pre-trial investigation initiated due to the alleged information leak.” Uhlava will have no influence on a number of units of the anti-corruption agency until the end of July.

Thus, within a month of the pre-trial investigation, detectives from the NABU Internal Control Department managed to seize some property of Birkadze and Polyuha. At the same time, both gentlemen are still not suspects.

Birkadze’s daughter’s tablet seized, while flash drives… remained with the driver

On May 22, investigators conducted simultaneous searches of the suspects at different locations. For example, at Heorhiy Birkadze’s place of residence, an iPad Pro tablet was seized. According to an elderly woman who was in the apartment, the computer equipment belongs to her granddaughter and Birkadze’s daughter Khrystyna. At the time of the search, the tablet was lying on a children’s table in the kitchen.  

Already in the motion for seizure, the prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office questioned that the found iPad belonged to a five-year-old child. “Although the tablet is used by the minor daughter, it may be assumed that this device was gifted by the father to his daughter and that he himself uses the tablet most of the time. The electronic device may contain information that could be relevant to the pre-trial investigation, therefore, in order to prevent the destruction of physical evidence, the tablet was seized,” the ruling of the High Anti-Corruption Court states.

Ultimately, Themis seized the gadget of Birkadze’s daughter; it was sent for computer-technical examination to the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise.

The law enforcement officers failed to repeat such a “trick” with the seizure of two flash drives found in the car used by Heorhiy Birkadze and his wife’s Apple laptop. The 4 Gb and 256 Gb flash drives, as the lawyer stated, belong to Birkadze’s driver, who stores his personal music on them. Moreover, during the search, the investigation was offered to examine the indicated flash drives, but they did not do so. Given this, the court concluded: “…the fact of the presence of flash drives in the car used by Birkadze does not give these items the characteristics of physical evidence.” Therefore, there are no grounds for seizure.

The story with the laptop of wife Olha Birkadze is similar. NABU detectives “hunted it down” in the trunk of the former official’s wife’s car. According to the lawyer’s claim, Olha Birkadze uses this laptop for work purposes; she works as an assistant at a department in a capital university. In this case, the court also believed the defence’s version and refused the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office the seizure of property.

Former official Heorhiy Birkadze himself responded to the scandal with several video interviews. In one of them, he joked that the investigation was looking for 37 billion hryvnias from him. Recall that Birkadze himself became known to the general public due to a gaffe he recently made on the air of the telethon “United News.” The studio guest unexpectedly said on camera: “If we take reconstruction, today we stole 37 billion… oh, invested in fortifications.”

In another interview, Birkadze acknowledged the correspondence with the NABU detective but categorically rejected claims of access to classified law enforcement documents. He also called Yuriy Holyk a “specialist” of the “Great Construction” and confirmed: he shared with him correspondence from his sources in law enforcement agencies.

“I am not an official, I can write whatever I want and to whomever I want,” the former head of the Brovary District State Administration sharply retorted to the journalist’s accusations.

Overall, as Birkadze believes, the story of the “leaks” from the NABU was “cooked up” by several persons, one of whom is former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov. 

There are questions for Holyk about the alleged theft of money in Dnipropetrovsk, and for Birkadze due to personal correspondence. The NABU must conduct an honest investigation and put everyone, including me, on a polygraph,” Heorhiy Birkadze lamented.

Apple smartwatch of NABU detective’s son – under seizure

The seizure of property also affected the already mentioned NABU detective Valeriy Polyuha (Yaponets). At the end of May, the High Anti-Corruption Court granted the motion of the prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and seized two Samsung and Redmi mobile phones and an Apple Watch smartwatch.

In court, Polyuha justified himself: the seized devices have nothing to do with the case of data “leaks” from the NABU. According to him, he used the Samsung phone until 2019, and now his child uses it as a toy. As for the Redmi phone, it was purchased in January 2023. He uses it to communicate with his minor son, who has an Apple Watch smartwatch.

In addition, the detective, suspected by colleagues of “leaks,” continued to insist: he was not part of the group of detectives in criminal proceeding No. 42022000000001543 (the case was opened in November 2022 after a series of media exposures related to the development of almost 1.5 billion hryvnias for roads in Dnipropetrovsk region amid full-scale war. Later, searches were conducted in this proceeding against Yuriy Holyk, the girlfriend of the former head of Dnipropetrovsk region Yana Hlanta, and other suspects), in which an information leak occurred. Therefore, he did not possess and could not possess pre-trial investigation data. Meanwhile, the court noted: the purpose of seizing Polyuha’s property is not to deprive him of access to phones and smartwatch, but to temporarily restrict the right of use until the expert examination is completed.

The Holyk factor

The entire current uproar around the NABU arose because of the already odious curator of the “Great Construction,” Yuriy Holyk. At the beginning of May 2023, anti-corruption bodies searched the car in which the project’s inspirer was traveling. In the car, law enforcement officers came across two iPhones and a laptop. The equipment was immediately seized and impounded.

The fact is that the NABU was checking Holyk for involvement in schemes during tender procurements for road repairs in Dnipropetrovsk region under martial law. In this case, law enforcement officers are also analyzing the activities of officials of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration.

Despite the fact that Holyk’s lawyers built an “ironclad” alibi in the courts, claiming that their client does not work either in the RSA or is listed in contractor companies, the publication “Nashi Hroshi” back in 2020 wrote: “Under Holyk’s supervision, the Dnipropetrovsk RSA ordered asphalt concrete for road repairs one and a half times more expensive than neighboring regions.” By the way, because of this article, Holyk dragged the investigative journalists to court to defend his honor and dignity, but lost.

In addition, as journalists from Bihus.info found out, NABU detectives managed to recover part of the information from Yuriy Holyk’s iPhone (mostly photos from the phone cache). It was precisely this identified information that confirmed: the ideologist of the “Great Construction” was well aware of the progress of the criminal case regarding road repairs in Dnipropetrovsk region, in the materials of which his name is mentioned.

Again, without having official positions in power, Yuriy Holyk enjoyed benefits that are inaccessible to most men of conscription age in Ukraine.

This is – unhindered travel abroad under the guise of a volunteer from the charitable foundation “Songs Born in the ATO.” The founder of the organization is former deputy of the already ex-head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration Reznichenko, Volodymyr Yurchenko…

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While the material was being prepared for publication, a statement by NABU Director Semen Kryvonos regarding this case appeared. He assured: in addition to the pre-trial investigation into the leaks, two official investigations have been initiated at the NABU. The first concerns possible pressure on whistleblowers, the other concerns possible unlawful instructions to detectives. Necessary measures are being taken, and relevant circumstances are being established. Based on the results of these official investigations, if there are sufficient grounds, the guilty persons will be brought to disciplinary responsibility.

“I emphasize, the “leak” of information (disclosure of pre-trial investigation data) is a criminal offence. I consider it unacceptable to disregard the law just to dismiss someone… Any decisions, including personnel ones, will be made by me solely based on the results of the investigations and in strict accordance with the procedures defined by law,” the head of the anti-corruption body emphasized.

Vitaliy Taranenko,  “Glavcom”