KIEV: Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators have detained an influential former member of parliament and a senior energy executive, as Kiev’s authorities come under domestic and western pressure to crack down on top-level graft.
Agents from Ukraine’s national anti-corruption bureau (Nabu) detained Mykola Martynenko, a close ally of ex-prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, on Thursday night for allegedly embezzling $17.3 million (€16.2 million) through a crooked deal to sell uranium at inflated prices to a state-run enrichment plant.
As part of the same case, Nabu agents on Friday detained Sergiy Pereloma, the first deputy chairman of Ukraine’s state gas company, Naftogaz. Lawyers for both the accused denied their involvement in any wrongdoing.
Nabu detectives swooped on the powerful pair less than two months after detaining the head of Ukraine’s tax agency, Roman Nasirov, on suspicion of defrauding the state of some €70 million in tax payments, to the benefit of firms linked to fugitive deputy Oleksandr Onishchenko.
Nasirov denies the charge, and is under house arrest after paying bail of 100 million hryvnia (€3.5 million). Prosecutors asked a Kiev court to hold Martynenko in pre-trial detention or set bail at a colossal 300 million hryvnia.
“From the start of the investigation [in December 2015], Nabu detectives sent 16 requests for international legal assistance to eight countries,” the anti-corruption agency said in a statement.
