HOT ANTICORRUPTION NEWS / Issue #127
December 9, 2019
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Today's issue:
- the register of failures of the High Council of Justice;
- Verkhovna Rada gave green light to the relaunch of State Bureau of Investigations;
- AntAC's report on the state of beneficial ownership disclosure in Ukraine;
- important anti-corruption laws adopted last week;
- "Four wars of Kolomoisky": evaluation of the political influence of oligarch;
- whom Mr Giuliani met in Ukraine;
- recommended reading
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The register of failures of the High Council of Justice
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This is a striking testimony of the fact that the judicial branch of power will never be truly independent without the comprehensive HCJ reform.
Instead of independent professionals, we get pre-approved officials who fail to meet the integrity and professional ethics criteria. Instead of those lacking integrity being dismissed, we get independent judges under pressure. This is the current picture of the High Council of Justice members and activities.
The cases collected in the Register must be the indisputable ground for reforming the High Council of Justice as a prerequisite for genuine judicial reform, and not just for show. In doing so, the restart of the HCJ should take place not only through a change of members - which should become an important first step, but also through a change in approach to the formation of the Council.
As a reference, foreign partners of Ukraine submitted nominations for the Commission on Integrity and Ethics to the High Council of Justice, but the HCJ continues to block the reform, foreseen by Zelenskyi's judicial law.
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Verkhovna Rada gave green light to the relaunch of State Bureau of Investigations
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On December 6, the Verkhovna Rada supported the restart the State Bureau of Investigation by 250 votes. Current director of the SBI Roman Truba and his deputies will be dismissed when the law comes in force.
MPs agreed on the structure of the selection panel, which will select the new head of the SBI.
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There will be: 3 members from the Verkhovna Rada, 3 members from the President and 3 members from the Cabinet of Ministers. The quota of the Cabinet of Ministers will be delegated to international organizations.
MPs also agreed to transfer investigators from the Prosecutor General’s Office to the SBI to continue investigating crimes that had been committed during the Revolution of Dignity.
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AntAC's report on the state of beneficial ownership disclosure in Ukraine
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Ukraine is the first country in the world to disclose information on companies' beneficial owners and make it publicly available. However, due to numerous technical flaws of the register and weak legislative framework, the data on beneficial owners in the register is of very poor quality. Most of the companies do not disclose beneficial owners or likely intentionally provide false information. See the full report here.
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Important anti-corruption laws adopted last week
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On December 6, Verkhovna Rada adopted two laws in the second reading implementing important anti-corruption initiatives. The law 2047-Д finally demolishes the corruption scheme in the evaluation of real estate under which all the evaluations have to been done through special electronic platforms.
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The law 2179 introduces new version of AML regulation implementing the 4th EU AML Directive.
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"Four wars of Kolomoisky": evaluation of the political influence of oligarch
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Ukrainska Pravda made the attempt to evaluate the real political influence of oligarch Igor Kolomoisky which he gained during Zelenskyi's presidency. During the time of Poroshenko’s presidency, Kolomoisky had to leave the country.
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Recently, he returned to Ukraine, his last safe land. But in order to gain a foothold here, he has to run several survival wars at once. Full text
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Whom Mr Giuliani met in Ukraine
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Reportedly, last week Rudi Giuliani made a trip to Ukraine and met with a number of Ukrainians. However, the trustworthiness of these people raises concerns:
- Yuriy Lutsenko, former Prosecutor General: activists asked for OFAC sanctions for his corruption and obstruction of justice;
- Oleksandr Dubinsky, MP, related to oligarch Kolomoisky, scandal-seeker;
- Andriy Derkach, MP, former member of Yanukovych's Party of Regions, has history of promoting false narratives and conspiracy theories;
- Viktor Shokin, former Prosecutor General, dismissed for corruption and ineffectiveness;
- Andriy Artemenko, former MP, known for attempts of back-door diplomacy with US;
- Andriy Telizhenko, former low-ranking diplomat, known for unjustified claims on Ukrainian meddling in US politics
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