Prosecutors, the police, and employees of the Security Service (SBU) have conducted surveillance of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau's (NABU) actions in the Midas operation, NABU Chief Semen Kryvonos said on Feb. 26.
At the same time, similar information on the NABU's activities has been leaked to suspects in the Midas operation — the biggest corruption case during Volodymyr Zelensky's presidency.
Nine suspects have been charged in the Midas operation — an investigation into corruption at state nuclear power monopoly Energoatom and in the defense industry. These include Timur Mindich, a close associate of the president, ex-Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov and former Energy and Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko.
Employees of several agencies looked for warrants in the Midas case in the official register for court decisions and got access to them in November and December, according to log-in data obtained by the NABU.
These include the SBU, the State Investigation Bureau, the Prosecutor General's Office, the National Police, the Asset Recovery Management Agency (ARMA) and the Financial Monitoring Agency, as well as a judge of the Kyiv Court of Appeal, Kryvonos said at a meeting of parliament's anti-corruption committee on Feb. 26.
The State Investigation Bureau told the Kyiv Independent that its employees "only act according to the law," while the other agencies involved did not respond to requests for comment.
Law enforcement officials have also monitored the movement of NABU vehicles through Kyiv's municipal surveillance camera system, Kryvonos said. These include employees of the SBU, the State Investigation Bureau, and the Economic Security Bureau, he added.
Kryvonos said that "they can use this system to expose us to potential criminal suspects."
“There may be lawful grounds to monitor NABU vehicles, but there can be no lawful grounds to transfer this information to the office of a criminal organization," Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Oleksandr Klymenko said at the committee meeting. "How does this information — which they obtain in their capacity as operatives — end up in the office of a criminal organization?”
The NABU said in November that, at a money laundering office allegedly run by Mindich, the bureau had found a cache of reports containing data on its detectives and information on the movement of NABU vehicles.
On Feb. 10, the NABU also said that an unspecified law enforcement agency had set up a surveillance device in the home of a NABU unit chief. Kryvonos said on Feb. 26 that employees of the agency are being investigated on suspicion of illegally installing the device without court authorization.
The NABU unit chief is investigating corruption in the defense industry as part of the Midas operation, the bureau said.
Although the NABU did not specify which law enforcement agency was involved, Klymenko hinted on Feb. 10 that it could be the SBU.
The NABU said earlier that law enforcement officials were being investigated for allegedly aiding suspects in the Energoatom corruption scheme.
Several law enforcement agencies are mentioned in tapes released by the Anti-Corruption Bureau as part of the case.
"The train station (an apparent reference to the State Investigation Bureau, which is located near the train station in Kyiv), and the Service (an apparent reference to the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU) and Riznytska (an apparent reference to the Prosecutor General's Office on Riznytska Street) will join in, and they'll start fabricating (cases)," Ihor Myroniuk, one of the suspects, said in the tapes.
The ongoing conflict between agencies loyal to the President's Office and the anti-corruption agencies began in July. Then, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the State Investigation Bureau conducted at least 70 searches at NABU premises and detained detectives of the bureau.
According to correspondence published by the NABU, the SBU has also asked the Justice Ministry to create uncomfortable conditions for a detained NABU detective and place him in a cell with unpleasant neighbors.
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