Prosecutor General Ruslan Riaboshapka has appointed Vitaly Kasko as his first deputy – effectively second-in-command at the prosecutor’s office.
The Sept. 5 decision was praised by anti-corruption activists and legal experts, because Kasko has won the reputation of a reformer.
Kasko was a deputy prosecutor from 2014 to 2016 and helped prosecute the high-profile bribery case against top prosecutors Oleksandr Korniyets and Volodymyr Shapakin, known as “the diamond prosecutors.”
Kasko resigned as deputy prosecutor general in February 2016, saying that then-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin had transformed the prosecutorial system into a corrupt “dead body” that “creates and tolerates total lawlessness,” as well as making it “a tool of political intimidation and profiteering.”
The Prosecutor General’s Office in Ukraine works as a corrupt public business, opening and closing criminal cases for money, Kasko said in an interview with the Kyiv Post at the time.
“It was normal practice during (ex-Prosecutor General Viktor) Pshonka’s time,” Kasko said. “And, unfortunately, we can observe a very similar situation during the time of (former prosecutors general) Oleh Makhnitsky, Vitaliy Yarema and Viktor Shokin. Now, in my view, it’s even worse than before … The most widespread thing (for prosecutors) is to take one or the other side in various business conflicts.”
At the time, Shokin’s spokesperson denied Kasko’s claims.
In April 2016, the Prosecutor General’s Office charged Kasko with illegally receiving two apartments from the state by fraud.
Kasko argued that the cases were Shokin’s revenge for his criticism of his former boss. Shokin denied this.
Kasko was later a member of Transparency International Ukraine’s board and worked as a lawyer.
He sparked controversy in 2017 by becoming a lawyer for Trade Commodity, which has been investigated over the alleged embezzlement of $5.5 million while supplying fuel to the Defense Ministry. Trade Commodity is affiliated with Andriy Adamovsky, a former business partner of Oleksandr Hranovsky, a former lawmaker from ex-President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc.
Kasko said that his client was innocent, and Transparency International Ukraine said a client cannot be equated with his or her lawyer. Kasko resigned as a member of Transparency International Ukraine’s board to avoid a conflict of interest.
Meanwhile, Anzhela Stryzhevska, Yuriy Stolyarchuk, Serhiy Kiz and Nazar Kholodnytsky remain deputy prosecutor generals. They have been connected to corruption scandals and have been accused of sabotaging criminal cases, although they deny the accusations. It remains to be seen whether Riaboshapka will fire them.