Anti-corruption court holds PGO official accused of protecting fraud call centres

Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) said on 5 September that a department head at the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) set up and led a criminal organisation that took bribes from fraudulent call centres and laundered the proceeds, according to a NABU release. Five members have been identified so far, and the suspects' actions fall under Articles 255 and 209 of the Criminal Code, on criminal organisations and money laundering.

A High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) investigating judge on 6 September ordered the PGO official, whom NABU's channel describes as a deputy head of a PGO unit, held in custody with the alternative of UAH 120 million bail, until 2 November 2026, NABU said in a statement on its official channel. The next day another investigating judge ordered custody with a UAH 20 million bail alternative for a woman described as an accomplice of the organisation's head, also until 2 November, according to a second statement. In both cases the court partly granted the prosecution's motion. The HACC Appeals Chamber left both orders unchanged, on 15 September for the accomplice and on 16 September for the PGO official, according to SAPO statements of 15 September and 16 September.

The case concerns the national prosecution service itself, and it came nine days before NABU and SAPO publicly disputed statements by the Prosecutor General. The custody orders run to 2 November, the date by which the court must decide whether to extend them.

What NABU alleges

According to the release, the PGO official established the organisation in mid-2025 and drew in serving prosecutors' office staff as well as people from his informal circle. Its members set up a mechanism for receiving bribes systematically in return for not interfering with call centres that ran large-scale fraud against Ukrainian and foreign victims.

NABU says the proceeds were laundered in several ways. More than UAH 20 million was spent on real estate, jewellery and other valuables. The head of the organisation laundered assets worth more than UAH 12 million, at minimum market value, by re-registering them to third parties to hide the real owner, including real estate in an apartment complex near the Carpathian Mountains. Members deposited more than UAH 10 million into the bank accounts of close associates, presenting the money as legitimate business income, according to the release. The investigation is continuing to identify other participants.

None of the suspects is named, and the release does not identify the call centres, the number or nationality of the fraud victims, or the department the official headed. If bail is posted, the suspects will be subject to procedural obligations, the statement says.

The dispute with the Prosecutor General

On 14 September NABU and SAPO issued a joint statement responding to statements by the Prosecutor General, whom they described as having recently submitted his resignation. They said they regarded his actions as the continuation of a systemic attack on the independent anti-corruption bodies, whose active phase, they said, began the previous summer with an attempt to subordinate NABU and SAPO to the PGO.

The statement said that no notice of suspicion had been officially served on NABU Director Semen Kryvonos, that NABU had not taken over any of the criminal proceedings referred to in the Prosecutor General's statements, and that NABU and SAPO had never sought any form of immunity for their staff or anyone else. It described the Prosecutor General's statements as public rather than procedural in nature and said NABU and SAPO do not take part in political struggle.

What the record does not show

This account of the dispute is NABU and SAPO's alone. EM Governance Review could not reach the Prosecutor General's Office for this article: its website, gp.gov.ua, could not be accessed when the article was checked on 17 October, so the Prosecutor General's statements are described here only as NABU and SAPO characterise them. The joint statement does not quote them or say which proceedings they concerned. Neither NABU document links the call-centre case to the dispute, and neither says whether the PGO has taken disciplinary action against the suspected official.

The next procedural date is 2 November 2026, when the custody orders for both suspects expire unless the HACC extends them. As of 17 October, NABU and SAPO had reported no further step in the case on their official channels.