The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) have renewed a memorandum of understanding.
“The U.S. FBI and Ukraine’s NABU renewed a memorandum of understanding that will continue cooperation on cases relevant to both countries. Crime and corruption is transnational. Law enforcement must be as well,” the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said on Twitter.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has found manifestations of Ukrainian corruption in 65 countries, the press service of the NABU has reported. “Ukrainian corruption is traced in 65 countries. Most often, detectives have to seek help from law enforcement officials in Latvia, Cyprus, the U.K., Germany and Switzerland. For its part, the National Bureau also tries to respond promptly to requests received from foreign colleagues: 90% of them were satisfied,” the NABU said in a statement.
The NABU sent about 500 requests for international legal assistance to the competent authorities of other states. Of these, 118 were only in the second half of 2018, of which 52 were answered. The purpose of requests is to find out the circumstances of committing corruption offenses, as a result of which the interests of Ukraine were damaged.
NABU explained the need for international communication by the fact that the majority of corruption schemes provide for the participation of companies registered abroad. Typically, these companies play the role of intermediaries which leave the lion’s share of revenues of state-owned companies. In the future, the organizers of the schemes legalize these funds and spend them for their own needs, including for financing political projects.
Examples of criminal proceedings in the NABU, the investigation of which was led by detectives abroad, are: the embezzlement of UAH 247 million at state-owned enterprise (SOE) Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, causing a loss of $60.5 million to PJSC State Food and Grain Corporation. The NABU and Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) estimated that, due to corruption involving foreign contractors, the state interests were damaged in the amount of about UAH 7 billion.
