The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has officially summoned businessman Kostyantyn Zhevago for questioning in the case concerning an attempt to bribe the leadership of the Supreme Court. The billionaire is expected at the agency’s headquarters in Kyiv on 16 June at 10:00.
The investigation links the owner of the Ferrexpo group and the Poltava Mining and Processing Plant to the case involving the largest bribe in the history of the Ukrainian judicial system. According to the prosecution, the oligarch paid US$2.7 million to secure a ruling in his favour regarding the assets of the Poltava Mining and Processing Plant.
A key development in the case was the arrest of Supreme Court President Vsevolod Knyazev whilst receiving an unlawful benefit. During the pre-trial investigation, Knyazev pleaded guilty, entered into a plea bargain with the investigators and was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
“As part of his plea deal, Knyazev provided detailed testimony, which formed the basis for investigating the involvement of other high-ranking officials in the corruption scheme, in particular Konstantin Zhevago,”
sources familiar with the case note.
The testimony of the former head of the Supreme Court also helped investigators track down three more judges who may have been involved in the corruption scheme. According to the text of the summons, Konstantin Zhevago appears in the proceedings as a person regarding whom the investigators have specific questions.
Konstantin Zhevago, whose fortune was estimated at $2.4 billion before the full-scale war began, is currently outside Ukraine (specifically, in Paris). In addition to key assets in the mining and metallurgical sector (Ferrexpo, Poltava Mining and Processing Plant), the businessman was previously linked to the banking sector through the bank ‘Finance and Credit’.
The summons for questioning has been sent to the address of the NABU headquarters (3 Denys Monastyrskyi Street). Experts stress that this summons is a critically important stage in a case that has become a landmark example of the fight against corruption in the highest echelons of power in Ukraine.