Ukraine finance minister demands resignation of prosecutor general

Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk demanded the
resignation of Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko for intentionally delaying the
prosecution of the former owners of Privatbank (PRBANK) in a Dec. 21 Facebook
post. He stressed that the Dec. 20 ruling of the High Court in London to freeze assets of the former Privatbank
owners was achieved “despite” the Prosecutor General Office’s actions, and
“not thanks to its support.” Instead, the office opened a series of
criminal cases against officials of MinFin, the central bank and Privatbank, as
well as cases against legal and financial advisors who helped the Ukrainian
state defend its rights against the former Privatbank owners, Danyliuk wrote.

As further evidence of wrongdoing, Danyliuk referred
to the “incidental” meeting of Lutsenko with Ihor Kolomoyskyi (the key former
shareholder of Privatbank) in Amsterdam last month (the information of which
was leaked last week).

In his turn, Lutsenko commented to the lb.ua news site
that Danyliuk’s declaration is “a banal desire to avoid criminal
responsibility.” He referred to his office’s investigation launched last summer against Danylyuk
for alleged tax evasion of UAH 0.7 mln. “Danyliuk should pay taxes or be
imprisoned,” Lutsenko said. He also said the office had no choice but to
react to official claims and initiate an investigation against the authorities
and advisors related to Privatbank. Kolomoyskyi also responded to Danyliuk’s
statement, claiming that the minister “used a fake event as a pretext to avoid
responsibility for his crimes.”

Zenon Zawada: There’s no
doubt that Danyliuk has a long-standing feud with Lutsenko stemming from this
year’s tax evasion case, which was closed in September.
The case could have been retaliation for Danyliuk closing corruption loopholes
enjoyed by top officials, as well as Danyliuk helping protest leader Mikheil
Saakashvili set up a think tank in Kyiv.

Nonetheless, we believe Danyliuk’s claims deserve
to be investigated, though the independent National Anti-Corruption Bureau
would be able to do a better job than state prosecutors, as suggested by
Lutsenko. There is a great deal of suspicious activity surrounding the
Privatbank bankruptcy that requires a thorough, independent investigation.