Detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) will continue the pre-trial investigation of the so-called “black ledger” of the Party of Regions case as a part of a joint investigative group with the Department of Special Investigations of the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine (GPO) headed by Serhii Gorbatiuk.
It`s been a year since investigation had been started based on the documents received from the Former First Deputy of the State Security Service of Ukraine Viktor Trepak. Within this period the NABU Detectives have been actively working on the identification of persons whose names and signatures appear in the so-called “black ledger”.
During the investigation the authenticity of the signatures of some persons was confirmed by a number of examinations. On December 13, 2016, the Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine (CEC) was given notice of suspicion. The notice of suspicion was signed personally by the Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) Nazar Kholodnytsky. The NABU Detectives think suggest that there is sufficient evidence to notify of suspicion at least one more person.
The Head of the SAPO as the head of the group of prosecutors is not obliged to agree his decisions with the NABU Detectives including the decision to stop the pre-trial investigation as of the Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine.
We emphasize that the evidence collected by the NABU Detectives is sufficient to forward the indictment against the CEC Chairman to court.
However, as the first notice of suspicion to the CEC Chairman was given by Nazar Kholodnitsky, though he is the only who has authority to updated a notice of suspicion and forward the case to the court. According to the Article 279 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine "If notice of suspicion was given by public prosecutor, only the public prosecutor shall have the right to notify of the new suspicion or to change previously notified suspicion".
As the Head of the SAPO decided to pass the materials of the pre-trial investigation to the GPO according to investigative jurisdiction, the NABU Detectives will continue work on the case in a joint investigative group with the Department of Special Investigations of the General Prosecutor's Office.
The investigative group team was formed last year for joint research of signatures of the so-called Party of Regions “black ledger”. From the very beginning of the investigation, it was obvious that “black ledger” have probative value in the investigation of proceedings as of the facts of the usurpation of power by Viktor Yanukovych, that has been investigated over the past three years by the GPO Department headed by Serhii Gorbatiuk.
The SAPO concerns regarding the authenticity of the signatures and limitation periods of the entry in the so-called Party of Regions “black ledger” are unfounded. However, the authenticity of the signatures of the CEC Chairman was confirmed twice. For the first time the examination was done by the State Scientific Research Forensic Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. The re-examination was carried out by the group of experts of the Kharkiv Research Institute of Forensic Examinations n.a. Bokarius and the State Scientific Research Forensic Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. According to the NABU Detectives, the fact that the latest entry in the «black ledger» of the Party of Regions was made in December 2012 does not fundamentally affect the possibility of proving the facts.
It should be reminded that on June 9, 2017, the SAPO issued a statement informing on the decision of its Head to stop the investigation as of the Chairman of the Central Election Commission and to direct the materials of the Party of Regions “black ledger” to the Department of Special Investigations of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine.
On May 30, 2016, the NABU started the pre-trial investigation of the criminal proceeding based on the documents that were passed to the NABU by Viktor Trepak. In terms of the pre-trial investigation of the abovementioned criminal proceeding on December 13, 2016, the CEC Chairman was given a notice of suspicion in committing crimes under Part 3 and 4 Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The total amount of bribes the suspect had allegedly received is 161,698 USD that at the time of the alleged offense was equal to 1,294,438 UAH according to the exchange rate of the National Bank of Ukraine.