A significant portion of the materials from Operation “Carthage” cannot yet be made public due to the interests of the investigation; what has been made public is only the “tip of the iceberg,” notes Oleksandr Abakumov, head of the detective division at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).
“What you’ve seen is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve shown only what we could show without compromising the investigation. A significant portion of the materials cannot yet be made public. And believe me, the darkest part of this corruption iceberg still remains underwater,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Monday.
He explained that working with such materials evokes, on the one hand, “almost physical revulsion.” “And on the other hand—a very clear realization: no one but ourselves will fix this. And it is precisely this second feeling that is much stronger than the first,” Abakumov added.
According to him, this operation reveals a completely different side of corruption. “Corruption isn’t just about money. Nor is it merely the abuse of power. It’s about impunity. Because corruption breeds impunity. Impunity breeds a sense of permissiveness. And that permissiveness, sooner or later, turns into violence,” explained the head of the detective team.
In this context, he continued: “When a criminal knows that protection from law enforcement can be bought with money, he stops fearing the law. When a law enforcement officer realizes that his authority can be turned into a source of illicit enrichment, he stops serving the state. And when these two find common ground, something far more dangerous than a typical corruption scheme emerges. A mafia emerges.”
“It was precisely the hallmarks of such a system that we observed during Operation ‘Carthage,’” Abakumov noted.
He clarified that during the second phase of the operation, the first five members of a new criminal organization were notified of their status as suspects; according to the investigation, at least 12 people were involved in the organization.
“We demonstrated how, according to the investigation, the system providing cover for dozens of fraudulent call centers might have operated. How representatives of the criminal underworld and law enforcement agencies interacted. How attacks on people who dared to stand up to the criminal business were discussed. And this is only part of what we were able to establish,” he said.
At the same time, Abakumov noted that a much broader conclusion should be drawn from this story: “Corruption does not exist in isolation from society. It permeates it. It does not begin or end in the office of a high-ranking official who accepts a bribe. For it to exist, it requires tens, hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of people, each of whom performs their own small role in a vast criminal mechanism.”
According to him, if this process is not stopped, the state is doomed.
“That is precisely why I am always surprised when I hear that the fight against corruption is supposedly not a priority right now. That there are more important tasks during the war. That the fight against corruption can be postponed until victory, and only then should we deal with all these problems. Operation ‘Carthage’ provides a very simple answer to this. The fight against corruption is not just relevant. It is one of the conditions for the state’s survival… Operation ‘Carthage’ continues. And for us, it’s not just the name of one of our investigations. It’s a symbol of the work we must see through to the end… Carthage must be destroyed,” concluded the head of the detective unit.
CORRUPTION, CRIME, INVESTIGATION, NABU, suspicion
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