NABU complains about prosecutors hindering Bakhmatyuk extradition

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU)
reported on Dec. 10 that the Prosecutor General’s Office is sabotaging its
attempts to extradite Oleg Bakhmatyuk, the former owner of VAB Bank and current
owner of Ukrlandfarming (UKRLAN) and Avangardco (AVGR LI). Namely, the office
rejected twice NABU’s requests to initiate the extradition, referring the first
time to a ruling of a first-tier court that closed the investigation, while in
the second time ignoring an appellate court ruling on Bakhmatyuk’s detention.
“In fact, we are the witnesses of a selective assessment of the court ruling by
the office,” NABU stated, referring to its decision to consider as doubtful the
appellate court ruling. The bureau promised to file a disciplinary complaint
against the prosecution officials who approved such decisions.

Recall, in November 2019, NABU detained seven suspects
in a criminal case of alleged misappropriation of a UAH 1.2 bln stabilization
loan that the National Bank provided to VAB Bank in 2014. It declared
Bakhmatyuk to be a suspect in this case, who has been out of Ukraine since
then.

Alexander Paraschiy: This is
another episode (after last week’s scandal with Tatarov)
demonstrating that any attempts of the Western-backed NABU to try to
investigate high-level corruption are being blocked by the prosecutor general’s
office, headed by Zelensky’s close ally Iryna Venediktova. Although we maintain
our position that there was hardly any corruption evident in VAB Bank’s
stabilization loan, the position of the prosecutor’s office in this case looks
strange.

Venediktova is increasingly resembling former
prosecutor general Viktor Shokin, who is known to have been dismissed in 2016
by then-President Poroshenko upon pressure from then-U.S. Vice President Joe
Biden, who linked the future of a USD 1 bln U.S. loan to the rotation of the
top prosecutor. It’s possible similar pressure will be put on President
Zelensky if Joe Biden is confirmed as U.S. president in the coming month.