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.
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 on Sept. 6 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. He also proposed that Onyshchenko should pay a certain amount to the budget.
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.
Another alleged negotiator with Poroshenko mentioned in the recording is journalist Mykhailo Podolyaka. He has admitted that he had advised Onyshchenko and that Dovhiy and others had negotiated with Onyshchenko on a plea bargain.
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 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.
