The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office was founded in December 2015 for procedural guidance over cases investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and their public prosecution in courts.

From the beginning of criminal proceeding a prosecutor or a group of prosecutors is appointed for each case. Detectives conduct investigation under their guidance.

After the investigation is completed, NABU detective drafts an indictment. It is forwarded to SAPO, where the prosecutor approves it and subsequently forwards it to the court. At this stage, NABU has done its work. Then, it is the prosecutors' case only.

The quality of top-corruption investigations and court decisions as well as whether subjects involved will be brought to accountability depend on prosecutors.

These facts were enough for former Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko to report the suspicion to his deputy, the anti-corruption prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytskyi. According to results of the investigation of "aquarium tape recordings", the suspicion was ready since summer 2018. However, Lutsenko decided to cover Kholodnytskyi, and the case was closed at the end of December 2018.

Thus, the only way out is restart of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office through the dismissal of leadership, namely Nazar Kholodnytskyi, as well as dishonest prosecutors. To do this, the Verkhovna Rada must prepare and adopt the law in order to restart the SAPO.

Otherwise, we will see neither real sentences, nor corrupt officials behind bars, nor the return of stolen money.

In autumn 2014, son of the Minister of Internal Affairs Oleksandr Avakov, along with deputy Minister Serhii Chebotar agree on the corruption scheme in the cabinet of the Ministry.

They decide to procure 5.000 backpacks for the needs of the ATO fighters at expenses of our taxes from the friend of Avakov-junior Volodymyr Lytvyn.

Two years after the start of investigation, and less than one year after the arrest of Avakov's son and deputy, SAPO prosecutor Vasyl Krychun illegally closes the criminal proceeding against Oleksandr Avakov and Serhii Chebotar.

SAPO changes qualification of the case to ordinary fraud. The only subject of the case remains the middleman - entrepreneur Volodymyr Lytvyn.

Later, deputy head of SAPO Volodymyr Kryvenko concludes doubtful plea deal with Lytvyn. According to its terms, the amount of damage caused in result of the scheme decreased threefold, from 14 million to 4.8 million UAH. The entrepreneur avoids the actual term of imprisonment.

In exchange for this, Lytvyn exposes allegedly his accomplice, a person who died in December 2015. Due to severe oncological illness this person could not physically organize such a crime. Nazar Kholodnytskyi concluded the closure of the case to be legal and refused to resume the investigation. In September 2018, the court approves plea deal with Lytvyn.

The Anti-Corruption Action Center appeals against illegal closure of the case against Avakov-junior and Chebotar, as it is the applicant in this case.

On November 5, 2018 the court "buried" Avakov's backpacks case for good by rejecting AntAC's appeal against its closure.

Video about the bribe in the form of apartment in suburbs of Kyiv (Vyshneve) to acting Minister of Healthcare Ulana Suprun was shown on all channels.

The case is quite simple. Suprun was asked to put expensive equipment into the local hospital and in return she would get a brand new apartment in a new building. This became the ground for opening the criminal proceeding.

Scandalous aquarium tape recordings captured how Kholodnytskyi warned the subject of the case - his friend - about plans and tactics of the investigation - searches, questionings. He provided instructions before investigatory actions in the case.

As it turned out later, at one time Nazar Kholodnytskyi worked with the Mayor of Vyshneve Ilya Dikov in the law enforcement system of Kyiv-Svyatoshyn district. Later, he even led Dikov's personal case as the prosecutor. In this case, Dikov using his connections, achieved opening of the criminal proceeding against his debtor, where no sign of crime was present.

After videos and tape recordings were released by NABU, SAPO head publicly stated that he did not see grounds for handing the notice of suspicion in this case. This means that the case, with all collected evidence, would be closed.

Besides the case of apartment bribe to Suprun, Kholodnytskyi made friends with other subjects of NABU case.

In June 2017, Kholodnytskyi became the Vice-President of the Football Federation of Ukraine. One year later, the Federation appeared in the center of a scandal. In May 2018, " Nashi Groshi with Denys Bigus" informed about manipulations with budget procurements for the production of artificial coatings for football fields by the commercial plant.

The Ministry of Regional Development has listed the requirements for the procurement of artificial grass, which were suitable only for one LLC company in Ukraine. This LLC, which belongs to the organization headed by Pavelko, has opened the plant for the production of artificial coating for football fields.

It is interesting that Pavelko is not only the President of the Football Federation and MP, but also he is the head of Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada.

Taking into consideration resonance, NABU started the investigation regarding possible corruption of the Federation during the construction of football fields.

In October, Schemes wrote about the ties between MP Pavelko and Arab offshore, with the help of which million dollars were siphoned off from the Federation's budget.

What are we saying? SAPO head Kholodnytskyi did not resign from the Federation. Moreover, he continues to spend time with the subject of the case, in which the agency he is running does procedural guidance.

Though SAPO head, according to him, formally has reported about the conflict of interests, he still remains to be Federation's leader. Therefore there is a large risk the case may be dumped.

In fall 2016, NABU opened criminal proceeding based on results of journalists' investigation about the head of the National Ground Forces Academy Pavlo Tkachuk.

Journalists found undeclared elite houses and Lexus. Tkachuk registered his property on the name of his mother-in-law, 88-year-old pensioner, and did not submit it in the declaration. Moreover, the General received real estate also in very original way.

But instead of figuring out the origin of this money and property that could not definitely afford retired mother-in-law, who died last year, SAPO deputy head Maksym Hryshchuk, simply closed the case.

The ground for closure was lack of information about the origin of funds. That means that SAPO prosecutors believed Tkachuk and his family members who said that their mother-in-law had earned everything herself. And since she died, it can not be proved.

Moreover, prosecutors came to the conclusion that Tkachuk does not use the elite house in which he lives with his family, because as of December 31, 2015 he was not there due to his vacation abroad.

In fact, according to this decision, SAPO prosecutors opened the Pandora's box. Since now any senior official who lives in undeclared house may take off on New Year's vacation and in such a way avoid criminal responsibility, because he allegedly does not reside in the house.

Later, the court approved that the case was illegally closed and forced SAPO to resume investigation.

During three years, the Ukraine International Airlines, controlled by Ihor Kolomoiskyi, included in the cost of tickets state fee, which UIA had to pay to the special state fund.

However, NABU detectives figured out that the company forwarded passengers' money to their income. In just 2 years, the UIA "earned" additional 150 million UAH. That means that people were paying fees, which executives of the UIA simply appropriated .

Imagine that one buys products in supermarket, pays tax, included in the cost of the check, and the company does not transfer it to the state, but appropriates it. Moreover, simultaneously the company explains that this tax is illegal and should not be collected. However, since it has already been received, they cannot give it back to all people who have already paid it.

The similar situation is with the UIA. After conducted investigation, NABU prepared three notices of suspicion to the airline management. But Kholodnytskyi blocked their approval. He explained this by the fact that he is waiting for final court decisions in the dispute between the UIA and the state.

The only thing Kholodnytskyi is silent about is that litigation only affect the fact who was robbed: state or passengers. But they do not deny the fact of "theft" in any way.

Later, Kholodnytskyi decided not to worry much at all and transferred the case to the police .

In September 2018, SBU spokesman published statement by the first deputy head of the SBU, Pavlo Demchyna, in which he stated that NABU had prepared the notice of suspicion for him. He called it the crime. Later, information regarding the suspicion was confirmed by NABU. But how Demchyna found out about it? NABU notes that the statement was published right after draft notice of suspicion was submitted to SAPO for approval. Is this the magical coincidence of circumstances?

After that, SAPO went even further. On its Facebook page it published the full text of the notice of suspicion to Demchyna. This is nonsense.

The PGO opened the criminal proceeding upon the fact of information leakage and warning of Demchyna about the notice of suspicion.

NABU investigates Demchyna's possible illicit enrichment.

In particular, during 1999-2015, Demchyna and his common-law wife* received total income of approximately 2.8 million UAH. At the same time, they spent at least 4.83 million UAH. 4.1 million UAH out of them were spent on cars. Where did this money come from? NABU and SAPO investigate this.

Thus, on February 26, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine made the decision that decriminalized the article "illicit enrichment" . Demchyna would have to be prosecuted according to this article. However, this decision finally helped him to avoid the responsibility. The SAPO has already reported about the closure of the case.

Firtash's case regarding Zaporizhzhya Titanium Magnesium Combine (ZTMC) has been in courts for more than 2 years already and is a remarkable example of how criminal proceedings, even with 100% evidence base, are buried in this country.

The state owns 51% of ZTMK and 49% belong to Dmytro Firtash through the Cyprus offshore. At one time the oligarch received plant's share because he promised to invest more than 110 million USD in its development. In the end, this money was transferred to offshores instead of plant's modernization.

Moreover, Firtash appointed as the head of the plant his manager Volodymyr Syvak, whom NABU accused of embezzling almost 500 million UAH. Criminal proceeding against him started in September 2015 and was transferred to NABU in June 2016.

Since the end of 2017, the case is being heard in the court. We recorded several decisions of SAPO prosecutors, which prove they were playing into the hands of subjects of the case - both during the course of investigation, as well as the trial.

For example, SAPO prosecutor Olga Yarova surprisingly decided to withdraw her own appeal against the court decision that ruled very soft preventive measure for Syvak. In addition, Yarova refused to appeal to the court on suspending Syvak from office.

Then the prosecutor made a " mistake " in definition of jurisdiction and gifted Firtash's manager about one year. SAPO prosecutors were forced to file these evidence after the Anti-Corruption Action Center publicly " reminded " them about this.

Moreover, during the court hearing one of the judges, namely Ninel Marchenko, stated that the representative of ZTMC with the last name Shostak had offered her a 50,000 USD bribe for passing the acquittal for Syvak. Taking into account the probable bias of the other two judges, SAPO prosecutors tried to withdraw the entire panel of judges from the consideration of Syvak's case. However, they were refused twice.

The result of all these actions and "mistakes" of the SAPO prosecutors was the acquittal regarding Syvak, which the court had announced on May 29, 2019. The prosecutors themselves decided that they should not have listened to it. Thus, they did not come to the hearing.

The Appeal Chamber of the Anti-Corruption Court is currently considering the SAPO's appeal against the acquittal.

In November 2017, the PGO reported on another "unprecedented" confiscation as part of investigation of the "criminal scheme by Serhii Kurchenko". In fact, it turned out to be another soap bubble of Yuriy Lutsenko.

The investigation ended up with conclusion of plea deal with straw men, and not with the beneficiary of the scheme - Kurchenko, who is suspected of using Odesa Oil Refinery Plant to evade taxes in particularly large amounts.

According to plea deal, oil products of Odesa Oil Refinery Plant were allegedly confiscated. However, at the time of decision on confiscation, oil products had already been sold, and money was transferred to accounts of friends of the Narodnyi Front MP Pashynskyi. Following Lutsenko's loud pseudo-confiscation the state actually got a big fat nothing and real threat to pay off money for illegally confiscated plant and oil products.

Such exclusively "paper" confiscation became possible also thanks to efforts of SAPO chief Nazar Kholodnytskyi.

In autumn 2016, NABU, upon Kholodnytskyi's approval, requested from Odesa Police the criminal proceeding regarding Kurchenko's scheme of illegal transshipment of petroleum products.

After studying the case, NABU detectives saw the prospect in it and requested SAPO, their procedural leaders, to determine the investigative jurisdiction for NABU. However, two times detectives received refusals signed by the prosecutor Olga Yarova. In March 2017, she returned the case back to Odesa Police.

At that time, the prospect was to investigate not only Kurchenko's scheme, but also the scheme of embezzlement of material evidence after the arrest, namely petroleum products. Therefore, in January 2017, detectives opened the case regarding theft of petroleum products and 880 million UAH which were received by officials of the SE Ukrtransnaftoprodukt from their sale.

Today, due to the fact that Kholodnytskyi did not allow NABU to investigate the case properly, while the PGO conducted "pseudo-confiscation", we will be forced to pay for oil products stolen from us.

The backpack case is not the only one where the SAPO pandered to the interests of People's Front party, covering up for leader Arsen Avakov's son.

The aquarium recordings show that Kholodnytskyi personally promised to "guarantee the safety" of the People's Front MP Heorhii Lohvynskyi. In February of 2018 Lohvynskyi came to Kholodnytskyi's office to inquire about his plans on the criminal cases featuring Lohvynskyi himself.

In summer 2016, NABU detectives started investigation of the corruption scheme at the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service and almost immediately detained the head of Service Svyatoslav Protas. He was handed the notice of suspicion of receiving the bribe.

The group of officials led by Protas developed the scheme of embezzlement large amount of budget funds.

Protas allegedly issued double bonuses on Medical Day to heads of the territorial bodies of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. Then he demanded to return half of bonuses to him.

Later, the well-known SAPO prosecutor Vasyl Krychun closed the case allegedly due to absence of crime components.

Detectives appealed this decision to Kholodnytskyi. However, it has not been changed .

The scandalous former head of the National Agency for Corruption Prevention, which was supposed to verify officials' declaration, herself did not submit the car and parking lot in Kyiv in her declaration.

NABU detectives started this case thanks to journalists' materials . Also, they collected almost all evidence to hand the notice of suspicion to Natalia Korchak.

The prosecutor came to Kholodnytskyi to agree detectives' access to things and documents.

Kholodnytskyi intervened in prosecutor's work on this case and instructed him not to approve final investigative actions of NABU. This blocked the investigation.

The SAPO officially refused to announce the suspicion to Korchak later. They stated that the case was not fully investigated. Half a year later Kholodnytskyi refused to agree on the suspicion for the second time.

It is interesting that after the NACP thanked the head of the SAPO by not seeing the conflict of interest in his actions. It is about the decision of Kholodnytskyi, which he has made in the criminal proceeding where his friend is the subject.

Later, the SAPO prosecutors agreed the suspicion to Nataliya Korchak which the NABU detectives handed over to her on October 28, 2019. In November, the investigation of this case was closed . And the case was transferred to the Anti-Corruption Court.

Back in 1998, two state institutions concluded the agreement, according to which the first State Innovation Financial-Credit Institution (SIFCI) had to provide to the second state entreprise Antonov a loan worth 21 million UAH for the development of aircraft. SE Antonov received only 16 million UAH, but did not return them.

Former head of the Central Elections Commission Mykhaylo Okhendovskyi in December 2016 received the notice of suspicion regarding obtaining illegally money from the "black ledger" of the Party of Regions, namely 160.000 USD.

In March 2017, Nazar Kholodnytskyi stated that he was ready to send the case for trial.

However, he simultaneously forced NABU detectives to send requests to other countries to find out whether Okhendovskyi spent abroad bribes, which he had received from the Party of Regions.

In three months, Kholodnytskyi changed his mind to send the case to the court and suspended the investigation.

This allowed Okhendovskyi's attorneys to send the appeal to the court. It ordered prosecutors either to close the case or to send it to the court. The SAPO prosecutor Maksym Kravchenko filed the appeal against this court's decision, but he "forgot" to sign it.

Later, Kravchenko corrected the mistake and eventually signed the appeal. But the court refused him. Therefore, the SAPO should either close or sent the case to the court.

The enterprise Tokmak Solar Energy, which is controlled by local Members of Parliament in Zaporizhzhya oblast from the Opposition Bloc Ruslan Bozhko and Oleksandr Repkin, sold electricity to the state enterprise Energorynok at the overestimated price. According to NABU detectives, embezzlement using this scheme reaches 300 million UAH which belong to taxpayers.

According to investigation, Tokmak Solar Energy received the "green tariff" by filing forged documents on putting into service not yet constructed areas. This is about the third stage of the solar power station with the capacity of 6 MW*/h.

The essence of the "green tariff" is that the state deliberately buys electricity from renewable sources at high prices. This is done to encourage development of green energy.

In November 2018, the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities (National Regulator) made the decision to conduct the unscheduled inspection of the enterprise according to NABU statement.

We should stress that this is about embezzlement of 300 million UAH, which means that the case is in the jurisdiction of NABU and SAPO. Members of Parliament of the Regional Council might be involved into this.

However, in December 2018, SAPO prosecutors decided to pass the case to the National Police for some reason, thus violating the requirements for investigative jurisdiction set by article 216 of the Code of Criminal Procedures. Detectives appealed against the prosecutor's decision to SAPO Head Kholodnytskyi. However, Kholodnytskyi did not cancel the decision.

At the same time, scientists of V.M. Koretsky Institute of State and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine came to the conclusion that the case "green tariff" is in the jurisdiction of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau only. The research was conducted at the request of the Anti-Corruption Action Center.

In order to cancel these green tariff agreements, the NABU sued against Tokmak Solar Energy and won the case in the court of first instance.

Prosecutors' unlawful decision to pass the case to the police was favorable for the involved persons. As expected, the police simply closed the case on 17 May 2019.

The website of the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities indicates that the tariff for the company will be in effect until 2030. According to preliminary estimations, the state will incur losses of over UAH 1 billion.

The Member of Parliament from Narodnyi Front Denys Dzenzerskyi, while being the shareholder of the group of companies Vesta, became the guarantor in a number of credit cases. As the result, he became the debtor of VTB Bank and Credit Dnipro Bank for the total amount of almost 4 billion USD.

Creditors sent the appeal to the court and won several cases regarding the recovery of money personally from the Member of Parliament.

However, there is no mention about these financial obligations in the MP's declarations in 2015 and 2016, as stated in journalists' investigation of Вihus.info.

Moreover, Dzenzerskyi did not submit his corporate rights at ISIC Vesta PJSC in the declaration, where his share of the authorized capital amounted to almost 8 million UAH.

In 2017, the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption conducted the full review of Dzenzerskyi's declarations in 2015 and 2016. It also confirmed related violations.

The NABU detectives collected evidence during the course of investigation, which became the ground for the preparation of the draft submission to the Verkhovna Rada regarding stripping of immunity from the MP in July 2017. The submission was returned for adjustments. According to the NABU, detectives eliminated shortcomings.

After that, the prosecutor had to make the new draft submission regarding stripping of immunity. However, in July 2018, the SAPO's prosecutor Valentyn Musiyaka issued the order to close the case. He clarified his decision by contradictory explanations of researchers that financial obligations allegedly may not appear on the ground of court decisions.

Such position of the SAPO's prosecutor Musiyaka was surprising. As no scientist and no academic institution could interpret provisions of laws of Ukraine. Only the Constitutional Court has such right. Neither prosecutor nor detective can not take as the ground any clarifications and conclusions of researchers for the adoption of procedural decisions in criminal proceedings.

Representatives of Dzenzerskyi's creditor-banks appealed in the court the closure of the case. At first, the court of the first instance refused them. But Kyiv Court of Appeal cancelled the decision of the court of the first instance and the decision of the SAPO's prosecutor Valentyn Musiyaka.

The consequence of the decision of Kyiv Court of Appeal is resuming the investigation of the case. According to the SAPO, on January 18, 2019, Nazar Kholodnytskyi changed the group of prosecutors in this proceeding. He excluded the prosecutor Musiyaka from it.

As the result of changes of prosecutors, on March 12, 2019 the SAPO submitted to the Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko the petition for approval on bringing Dzenzerskyi to criminal responsibility. Oddly to say that Lutsenko returned the petition.

However, on August 29, 2019, after the beginning of work of the Verkhovna Rada of the new convocation Denys Dzenzerskyi lost his term of office of the Member of Parliament.

On November 19, 2019, the NABU detectives with the approval of the SAPO prosecutors reported suspicion to Dzenzerskyi regarding submittion of false information in declarations in 2015-2018. Dzenzerskyi was reported suspicion "in absentia" because he went abroad.

The NABU has been investigating the criminal proceeding regarding theft of more than 20 million UAH of Ukrzaliznytsya since July 2016. The scheme is quite simple: metal goods (screws, bolts, inside screws, etc.) were sold to the state enterprise at overestimated prices.

Thus, in 2014, heads of the Center of Production Provision (separate unit of Ukrzaliznytsya) agreed with representatives of one of private enterprises and helped him to win tenders. According to concluded agreements, prices were almost two times higher than average market prices at that time.

Today, almost all participants of this scheme have been prosecuted and their cases have been sent to the court. However, in March 2017, the SAPO suddenly reduced the number of suspects in the case. It closed the case against the head of Supply Chain Management Department of Ukrzaliznytsya PJSC. According to the NABU, this person agreed procurements at overestimated prices.

Moreover, detectives found that one of organizers of this corruption scheme is the Member of Parliament of Ukraine Valeriy Ishchenko. The separate proceeding against him has been investigated since 2017.

According to the investigation, the Member of Parliament controlled the group of companies that were used in the scheme for the supply of goods to Ukrzaliznytsya at overestimated prices.

However, according to journalists, the SAPO prosecutors "do not see" grounds to send the appeal to the Verkhovna Rada in order to receive consent to present the suspicion to Ishchenko. The prosecutor in this case is Vitaliy Kravets.

Later, the situation has changed. On August 29, 2019, after the beginning of work of the Verkhovna Rada of the new convocation, Valeriy Ishchenko lost his term of office of the Member of Parliament.

On October 2, 2019, the NABU detectives announced suspicion to Ishchenko. The Anti-Corruption Court sent him on house arrest at night for the duration of investigation.

On November 20, 2019, the investigation in the case of Valeriy Ishchenko was closed. The case is prepared for transfer to the Anti-Corruption Court.

According to the NABU, heads of the agrarian holding Mriya seized 1,3 billion USD of international investors.

To do this, they have been falsifying documents regarding the financial position of more than 140 enterprises of the agroholding during 4 years. In particular, they submitted false information regarding profitability, number of available land plots, yield unit, etc.

As the result, heads of Mriya issued securities and received loans. However, detectives found that in such a way, international companies suffered losses in the amount of more than one billion USD.

In 2014, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) announced suspicion regarding fraud to former head of Mriya Mykola Guta. But they failed to hand it personally. After that the businessman was announced wanted. The Main Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was investigating the case during the year and a half ago.

As the result, we managed to find certain amount of equipment seized from Mriya to shell-companies. In 2016, the head of the SAPO Nazar Kholodnytskyi transferred the case to the NABU.

In September 2018, the SAPO prosecutors decided to transfer the case back to the police. And in November, they again decided to transfer the case back to the NABU. However, in November, the SAPO prosecutors decided to close the case regarding the suspicion to former head Mykola Guta. According to the court register, Vasyl Krychun is the prosecutor in the case.

Detectives of NABU investigated the corrupt scheme where the subject was the businessman from Odessa Vadym Alperin. During 2016-2017 high-ranking officials of customs and fiscal authorities, abusing their official positions, contributed to lowering the customs value of imported goods in Ukraine. Thanks to this scheme, the state suffered losses in the amount of more than half a billion hryvnias.

Vadym Alperin is known in the media as "the king of smuggling in Odessa". He is accused of gross offenses. And his assets are estimated at one billion dollars.

Detectives initiated the imposition of arrest on more than 450 million UAH of companies participating in the scheme within the framework of this investigation. At the end of 2017, investigators of the Prosecutor General's Office recorded facts of the bribe offer in the amount of 800,000 USD by Alperin to the head of NABU for the change of the qualification in his case.

Alperin wanted the case of abuse of power (part 2 article 364) to be re-qualified for forgery of documents (article 358). This would mean the change of jurisdiction and transfer of the case to the police.

According to the Code of Criminal Procedure, the case of Alperin exclusively belongs to the jurisdiction of NABU (paragraph 2 part 5 article 216 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine):

- pre-trial investigation of the crime foreseen by article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (abuse of power or official position);

- amount of damage exceeds 500 million UAH;

- detectives found evidence that the crime was committed by heads of the bodies of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine.

In May 2019, the head of the SAPO Nazar Kholodnytskyi changed the qualification of the so-called "case of Alperin" and passed it to the State Bureau of Investigations. That means that detectives of NABU refused to re-qualify this case for the bribe in the amount of 800,000 USD but Kholodnytskyi didn't.

Another case that concerned the same corruption scheme was transferred to the SBI along with the "case of Alperin". This investigation was initiated by the Prosecutor General's Office. In summer 2018, the head of the SAPO determined the jurisdiction of this case to the NABU. But last week he "had already changed his mind".

Namely, Kholodnytskyi illegally changed the jurisdiction in the case of Alperin in the finishing straight, despite direct prohibition of the Criminal Procedural Code to entrust the investigation of the NABU cases to another pre-trial investigation body.

Later, the new Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka abolished illegal decision of Kholodnytskyi and returned the case to the NABU.

At the end of November 2019, the media reported that the NABU detectives detained 10 people in the case. Namely, the deputy head of Kyiv City Customs Office of the SFS Sergiy Tupalskyi. Alperin himself managed to escape, but later he was detained at the entrance of the SAPO.

The notorious former military prosecutor of the Anti-Terrorist Operation forces has been holding a post of Deputy Head of the Department for International Legal Cooperation of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine for over 2 years.

Kulyk got this appointment in April of 2017, notwithstanding accusations of illicit enrichment. This case has been heard by the court since the end of 2016, however, it will soon be closed and Kulyk is going to get off scot-free under the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to repeal criminal liability for illicit enrichment.

In addition to this case, the Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine is investigating another case of the alleged corruption crime committed by Kulyk. Journalists, in particular, wrote about former ATO prosecutor Kulyk receiving money for being in the anti-terrorist operation zone in 2014-2016, while actually being in Kyiv. That is, he got the money illegally during the abovementioned period.

As early as 2017, the detectives gathered evidence in order to serve the notice of suspicion to Kostiantyn Kulyk, however, head of the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office Nazar Kholodnytskyi has been dragging the approval of the note of suspicion. According to the NABU, the suspicion notice draft has been sent to the SAPO three times, yielding no results.

In 2011, when the runaway ex-president Viktor Yanukovych was still in office, private company Odessa Airport Development acquired 75% of Odesa International Airport. The city was left with as little as 25% of equity rights to the airport.
In June 2016, detectives of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) started to investigate the unlawful privatization of the airport.

According to journalists , the company that acquired the rights to the airport belongs to Odesa businessmen Borys Kaufman and Oleksandr Hranovskyi.

Officials of Odesa City Council conspired with representatives of Odessa Airport Development to found Odesa International Airport LLC.

Converting the airport into a commercial company was passed off as attracting USD 120 million from a private investor to reconstruct the take-off runway.

However, no public tender was held to make the repairs. Obviously, the new owners of the airport were not interested in a large number of investors participating on competitive terms. Thus, Odessa Airport Development was the only investor that suited the schemers.

In the end, the funds that were supposed to be invested in the runway repairs turned out to be nothing, as they were held as a bank collateral for a loan issued to Odessa Airport Development.

Nevertheless, the wrongdoers still managed to transfer the entire municipal property of the airport to the private ownership of Kaufman and Hranovskyi. This has brought the amount of losses incurred by Odesa city to UAH 118 million.

Presently, the airport is operating and making profits that go to the schemers' pockets, instead of the city budget.

In the course of the investigation, the NABU detectives succeeded to seize the municipal property which had been transferred to the private company. Along with that, in April 2019, the detectives prepared drafts of suspicions and sent them to the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) for approval. However, the SAPO did not approve them.

Instead, on 10 June 2019, Volodymyr Kryvenko, the deputy head of the SAPO and the chief prosecutor under this case, reclassified the case from the abuse of office (article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) to the neglect of duty (article 367).

On the same day, Mr. Kryvenko approved the decision to hand over the case to the police of Odesa oblast for further investigation. Police did not investigate the case and subsequently closed it as expected.

As far back as in 2017, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) transferred another high-profile case concerning Bakhmatyuk to the police. The story goes about embezzlement of UAH 1.1 billion from the state budget by companies belonging to Avangard holding. Oleg Bakhmatyuk is the beneficiary owner of the companies.

Avangard is Ukraine's largest producer of eggs and egg products. The holding's assets include mixed fodder factories, hatcheries, chicken farms, and more.

According to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), several companies of the holding plotted to receive an unlawful VAT refund in 2015–2016.

The law envisages VAT refunds from the state budget to companies which have paid excessive VAT when producing and selling goods.

However, detectives found out that the holding's companies conducted transactions to simulate the grounds for the tax refund. In addition, the NABU detectives discovered that Avangard holding received the refund with the help of tax officers, who allegedly did not notice the violation and thus provided a positive opinion.

By implementing its schemes, the agroholding received several times more VAT refund from the budget than it was supposed to, causing UAH 1.1 billion of loss to the state.

However, in 2017, Volodymyr Kryvenko, the deputy of the SAPO Head Nazar Kholodnytskyi, decided to transfer the case to the National Police. NABU detectives appealed against this decision to Kholodnytskyi and Lutsenko, but in vain.

In 2017, the police conducted an expert examination, which allegedly found no proof of the illegal scheme, and the Prosecutor General's Office closed the case.

As far back as in 2014, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) lent UAH 1.2 billion as a support from the state to VAB Bank belonging to Oleg Bakhmatyuk. The NBU was providing funds to banks in order to keep them from going bankrupt.

The support was meant for the financial rehabilitation of VAB Bank, so that it did not lose its depositors' funds. However, the money was withdrawn from the bank using various schemes.

VAB Bank's commercial real estate in Kharkiv and Kyiv and bank owners' property were the collateral for the loan. In reality, the property evaluation was forged and the actual price of the property was substantially lower.

In addition, VAB Bank did not submit a financial rehabilitation plan (a specific program for the intended use of a loan) to the NBU. That left the state with no guarantee of loan repayment.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) launched an investigation of these and other facts. Bakhmatyuk himself and the then First Deputy Governor of the NBU Oleksandr Pysaruk were supposed to be among the suspects under this case.

The NABU prepared drafts of suspicion notices, but the Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko transferred the case to the National Police despite the procedural law clearly prohibiting to transfer NABU cases to any other bodies.

As a reminder, the NABU and the SAPO must deal with cases that involve top officials, such as the first deputy governor of the NBU.

Police investigators obtained a number of important evidence during their investigation, but the evidence somehow ended up in basements of police offices, where it literally sank in water. That means that the police might have conducted the investigation only to collect the evidence and destroy it.

However, even after Lutsenko unlawfully transferred the VAB Bank case to the police, the NABU started a separate investigation of the NBU loan scheme. It was Nazar Kholodnytskyi who dumped the case this time. In response to the request dated 27 March 2019, NABU detectives informed the Anti-Corruption Action Centre that the SAPO Head transferred the new case to the National Police.

The result was easy to foresee: both cases that were transferred to the police were closed without difficulty on 9 August.

Later, the new Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka abolished the decision to close the case. And he transferred it again to the NABU in August 2019. In November, the NABU announced about detention of 7 people on suspicion of appropriation of 1.2 billion UAH of the stabilization loan granted by the National Bank in 2014 to VAB Bank PJSC.

This is about former and current officials of the National Bank, VAB Bank and private companies associated with ultimate beneficiaries of VAB Bank. Bakhmatyuk was announced suspicion in absentia, as he was abroad. Later, he was declared wanted.

These facts were enough for former Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko to report the suspicion to his deputy, the anti-corruption prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytskyi. According to results of the investigation of "aquarium tape recordings", the suspicion was ready since summer 2018. However, Lutsenko decided to cover Kholodnytskyi, and the case was closed at the end of December 2018.

Thus, the only way out is restart of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office through the dismissal of leadership, namely Nazar Kholodnytskyi, as well as dishonest prosecutors. To do this, the Verkhovna Rada must prepare and adopt the law in order to restart the SAPO.

Otherwise, we will see neither real sentences, nor corrupt officials behind bars, nor the return of stolen money.