Bribery criminal case opened against 11 MPs

The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office
opened a criminal case on Oct. 23 against 11 MPs for each allegedly taking a
USD 30K bribe for withdrawing their support for anti-corruption legislation.
The 11 MPs are members of the parliamentary finance, tax and customs policy
committee. They are alleged by anonymous MPs – sources for an Oct. 22 news
report published by the pravda.com.ua news site – to have taken the bribes in
exchange for withdrawing their support for a bill that would have liquidated
corrupt intermediary firms involved in the appraisal of real estate for the
State Property Fund. A total of 14 MPs on the committee didn’t support the
bill, the pravda.com.ua news site reported.

These unneeded intermediaries firms are controlled by
MP Anton Yatsenko and were alleged in an August 2018 news report by the
bihus.info news site to have siphoned UAH 23 mln. Yatsenko and several of the
14 MPs are alleged to be aligned with billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, who was the
primary sponsor of President Zelensky’s election campaign.

In response to the criminal case, President Zelensky requested
that all 32 members of the parliamentary committee in question to partake in
lie detector tests. Yatsenko has refused to participate.

Zenon Zawada: At this point, scandals are surfacing daily involving the negative
influence of Kolomoisky on the new government, including parliament. Such
embarrassing scandals will continue indefinitely until the president’s team
decides to break from him once and for all, if that’s possible. Kolomoisky is
widely acknowledged to control a few dozen loyal MPs in the 252-member People’s
Servant parliamentary faction.