7 August 2019
Newly elected President Vladimir Zelensky was able to solidify his presidential victory with an overwhelming parliamentary elections victory. This is the first time that the President is in a position to pass legislation without seeking coalition support for majority in the parliament.
Now he turns his attention to those who had pilfered the country for decades – previous president Poroshenko and his team.
Ex-deputy head of Poroshenko’s Administration Oleksy Filatov, ex-head of National Bank Valeria Hontareva, and ex-Minister of Ecology Mykola Zlochevsky have been summoned by PG.
Oleksy Filatov is suspected of money laundering, assistance to the members of the criminal organizations and concealment of their criminal activity.
Mykola Zlochevsky is suspected of money laundering. Valeria Hontareva (in the picture above) is suspected misappropriation, embezzlement or acquisition of property by abuse of power.
The State Investigation Bureau (SIB) opened investigations against ex-president Petro Poroshenko on his travel to the Maldives in January 2018. According to SIB he crossed the border under a different name to travel to the Maldives. He said that he spent $54,000 on this vacation while newspapers reported expenses of double that amount. There is nothing wrong for him to have a holiday in the Maldives. His party made a statement that he did not travel on a false passport. There does not seem to be any good reason for him to travel incognito.
In another development the National Police and the Prosecutor General’s Office have detained two top officials from the Institute for Soil Protection of Ukraine and the Holovyne Quarry state enterprise when they receiving a nearly $1.5 million bribe.  The bribe of $1.3 million to the head of the Institute for Soil Protection of Ukraine and $200,000 to the director of the Holovyne Quarry state enterprise was to facilitate the privatisation of state-owned enterprise.