By Oleg Sukhov
Exiled lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko on Dec. 6
released the first of a series of audio recordings
he claims prove President Petro Poroshenko and his inner circle are corrupt.
Lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko, accused of embezzlement, is known for his love for equestrian sport.
The recording was released
by the strana.ua online newspaper. In the recording, Onyshchenko and lawmaker
Oles Dovhiy, whom the fugitive member of parliament described as representing
Poroshenko, discuss the possibility of Onyshchenko, a suspect in an
embezzlement case, reaching a plea bargain with Ukrainian authorities.
Onyshchenko told strana.ua that the plea bargain would be reached in exchange
for him writing off Poroshenko’s alleged $50 million debt to him.
Dovhiy’s representatives
did not respond to requests for comment.
The Presidential
Administration could not comment on the recording immediately. Previously the
administration dismissed Onyshchenko’s accusations as “absolutely false” and
said that he was attempting to politicize the embezzlement case. The
Presidential Administration also said that Ukrainian law enforcement agencies
were waiting for Onyshshenko to return to Ukraine with his materials.
The National
Anti-Corruption Bureau has charged Onyshchenko with stealing Hr 1.6 billion
($64 million) from state-owned gas producer Ukrgazvydobuvannya, which he
denies. He fled Ukraine before he was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in
July.
Both Onyshchenko and
Dovhiy are members of the People’s Will faction, an offshoot of ex-President
Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions.
The meeting between them
took place in London and was recorded on audio and video by British detectives,
Onyshchenko claimed.
In the recording
published on Dec. 6, the person identified by Onyshchenko as Dovhiy suggested
that Onyshchenko’s mother Inessa Kadyrova take responsibility for the alleged
embezzlement scheme and that Onyshchenko’s lawyer Valery Postny be released from
house arrest.
Dovhiy also mentions
another unnamed negotiator from Poroshenko, and refers to him as a friend of
Poroshenko’s top ally and lawmaker Oleksandr Hranovsky. Onyshchenko told
strana.ua that his name was Andriy Tsygankov.
Tsygankov has told Onyshchenko
that he must pay $2 million to Poroshenko to be allowed a plea bargain,
Onyshchenko claimed.
Hranovsky told the Kyiv
Post that he believed the accusations against him were “absurd.” He said he was
acquainted with Tsygankov, but denied being friends with him and sending him to
Onyshchenko.
Tsygankov has also
admitted being acquainted with Hranovsky, but denied having been his messenger
to Onyshchenko.
Onyshchenko also told
strana.ua that he had met Poroshenko in early July, and the president had promised
him that he would not be prosecuted.
Onyshchenko said on Dec.
1 he had given U.S. authorities evidence of the alleged
corruption of Poroshenko and his inner circle. The alleged evidence includes
audio recordings, text messages and documents, he said.
On the same day, the
Security Service of Ukraine started a treason case against Onyshchenko.
Onyshchenko has said he
had been an intermediary in Poroshenko’s alleged efforts to bribe lawmakers and
to organize a smear campaign against ex-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk before
Yatsenyuk quit in April. He has also accused Poroshenko of extorting money from
businesses and politicians, raiding companies and trying to monopolize the
media by negotiating to buy television channels.
Last week strana.ua published a document that Onyshchenko
claimed proves that Poroshenko’s investment banker Makar Paseniuk had paid him
11.875 million euros to bribe regional lawmakers to select pro-presidential
oblast council speakers after the Oct. 25, 2015 local elections. The amount was
transferred by an offshore firm called Meliam Properties Limited Paid to
Onyshchenko’s Ostexpert Limited. Paseniuk has denied the accusations.
He has also released
what he says is his smartphone correspondence with Serhiy Berezenko, a lawmaker
from Poroshenko’s Bloc, about their cooperation on the appointment of Igor
Bilous in as head of the State Property Fund in May 2015 and about
Onyshchenko’s refusal to vote for appointing Yuriy Lustenko as prosecutor
general in May 2016. He has also shown other text messages to the media.
The U.S. Department of
Justice could neither deny nor confirm that it received the alleged evidence
from Onyshchenko.
“The Justice
Department’s Criminal Division investigates and prosecutes violations solely of
U.S. law,” the department said. “Speaking generally, it is common for individuals
to request to meet with the Justice Department to provide information – and
while department prosecutors and law enforcement agents will attempt to meet to
gather potential information on alleged violations of U.S. law, the mere fact
of a meeting is not an indication that such violations have occurred, or that
the individual’s information is considered to be accurate. As a matter of
policy, the department neither confirms nor denies whether it has met with any
specific individual or whether specific information provided was considered to
be accurate or relevant to a violation of U.S. law.”
Kyiv Post staff reporter Josh Kovensky
contributed to this report.
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