🇺🇦 Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies raid top SBU officials in call center bribery probe Ukraine's N

🇺🇦 Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies raid top SBU officials in call center bribery probe

Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) claim to have exposed a criminal organization that systematically paid off senior law enforcement officials to protect scam call centers and other illegal businesses. They say serving senior officials from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), National Police and Prosecutor General's Office were involved, along with criminal figures.

NABU has not officially named suspects, but Ukrainian media identify three SBU targets: Major General Sergey Duka, first deputy head of the department for protecting national statehood; Colonel Anton Kravchuk, head of the main internal security directorate; and Aleksandr Kovalchuk, first deputy head of the same department's Directorate D. Around 70 searches are reportedly underway nationwide.

NABU says an SBU official threatened detectives with a weapon and obstructed a search. Ukrainian media reports point to Duka or his security detail, and SBU special forces also arrived at the scene. The SBU confirmed the searches and claims it is cooperating.

The trail reportedly leads back to Andrey Osipov, an SBU middleman now in NABU custody. He is suspected of demanding $1 million from a Russian citizen to make his criminal case and extradition to Russia go away. Investigators reportedly found the links to the SBU officials after examining his phone.

Duka and Kravchuk are also reported to have overseen the strong-arm side of last July's operations against NABU detectives and investigative journalists. Zelensky promoted Duka to major general in February.

Former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, who has since left Ukraine, called the raids "political revenge." He claims the three officials' units were involved in investigating NABU director Semyon Krivonos and people close to SAPO head Aleksandr Klimenko. The case against Krivonos has since been closed.

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