The Higher Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) is continuing to consider the request for a preventive measure for 24-year-old Elizaveta Ivakhnenko, who is referred to by the code name "Muse" in the anti-corruption authorities' case files. The young woman is implicated in the high-profile NABU case "Carthage" concerning the protection of fraudulent call centers by a criminal group operating inside the Office of the Prosecutor General. As reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing the court hearing broadcast, the proceedings began the day before, and on September 7 the trial continued. The prosecution is insisting on the strictest option — detention.
Prosecution's motion: arrest with a 50 million hryvnias bail
A prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) stated at the HACC hearing that a preventive measure in the form of detention with the possibility of posting bail should be applied to Ivakhnenko. The prosecution set the amount of the security at 50 million hryvnias. This is significantly lower than the amount previously requested in relation to another person implicated in the case — Serhiy Krapyva, deputy head of the international department of the Office of the Prosecutor General, for whom the SAP had requested a bail of 200 million hryvnias. The difference in the amounts may indicate a different degree of involvement of the suspects in the criminal scheme according to the investigation's version.
Operation "Carthage": what is known about the criminal scheme
As a reminder, on September 4 the anti-corruption authorities announced the launch of the special operation "Carthage" against an organized criminal group that had been operating inside the Office of the Prosecutor General. According to the investigation, this structure "protected" a network of fraudulent call centers and carried out the legalization of funds obtained through criminal means. On the same day, NABU detectives detained Serhiy Krapyva. The following day, on September 5, the Office of the Prosecutor General officially reacted to the overnight searches: the department stated its readiness to cooperate with the investigation, while at the same time promising to check whether the NABU detectives had exceeded the powers authorized by the court during the searches in the offices of the leadership.
Reaction of the Prosecutor General and Krapyva's fate
On September 6, Prosecutor General Ruslan Khrachenko publicly commented on the situation surrounding the case for the first time. He refuted rumors about his own "disappearance" and reported that the suspect employee had already been removed from his position, and that his dismissal is being prepared. On the same day, the SAP asked the court to impose a preventive measure on Krapyva in the form of detention with a bail of 200 million hryvnias. In the evening of September 6, the HACC partially granted the motion: Krapyva was placed in custody until November 2 with the possibility of posting bail in the amount of 120 million hryvnias — 80 million less than the prosecution had requested.
Contradictory data
Certain disagreements are observed in the public statements of the parties to the case. On the one hand, the Office of the Prosecutor General on September 5 declared its "readiness to cooperate with the investigation," but at the same time immediately cast doubt on the legality of the actions of the NABU detectives, promising to check whether they had exceeded the limits established by the court. On the other hand, on the night of September 7, Khrachenko, commenting on new references to himself in the NABU recordings, stated that the recorded conversations are "just conversations" and have no relation either to him personally or to the prosecution as an institution. Thus, the position of the department has evolved from formal cooperation to a public refutation of the content of the recordings, which creates a contradiction between the declared readiness to interact with the investigation and the actual rejection of the NABU's evidentiary base.
Context and further prospects
The "Carthage" case has become one of the most resonant anti-corruption proceedings in Ukraine in recent months. The investigation involves the highest echelons of the law enforcement system, which gives it exceptional political and public significance. The HACC's decision regarding Ivakhnenko, like the previous decision on Krapyva, will be watched as an indicator of how consistently the court approaches the assessment of evidence in cases involving law enforcement structures. The outcome of the hearing on Ivakhnenko is expected in the near future.
