The Appellate Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court rejected the appeal filed by the defense of Serhiy Kropyv, Deputy Head of the International Cooperation Department of the Office of the Prosecutor General. The court upheld the first-instance ruling: the defendant remains in custody, with the alternative of posting a bail of 120 million hryvnias. Thus, the appeal did not change the pre-trial measure previously imposed by the VAKS.
The Appellate Chamber's decision
Kropyv's defense asked the court to overturn the imposed pre-trial measure or replace it with round-the-clock house arrest with an electronic ankle monitor. In addition, the lawyers and the suspect himself insisted on a substantial reduction of the bail amount — according to the version set out in the case file, to 2 million hryvnias, claiming that this was the maximum sum the official could pay given his declared assets. A prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office opposed the appeal and presented additional arguments from the investigation. In particular, the prosecution refuted Kropyv's claim that he was on an official business trip at the time of his detention on September 4: the investigation found no corresponding documents. Taking these arguments into account, the court left the first-instance ruling unchanged.
Context: Operation 'Carthage'
As a reminder, on September 6 the VAKS placed Serhiy Kropyv in custody until November 2, with the possibility of posting bail of 120 million hryvnias, whereas the prosecutors had initially sought a sum of 200 million hryvnias. The official is implicated in a large-scale joint operation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, known as Operation 'Carthage'. According to the investigators, Kropyv headed a criminal organization that systematically received bribes for 'protection' of the activities of fraudulent call centers and the subsequent laundering of the proceeds.
Resonance and personnel changes
The investigation into the 'Carthage' case has already led to arrests and personnel changes within the law enforcement bodies. In the course of this case, the VAKS arrested lawyer Oleksandr Dydych — Kropyv's representative and relative. Against the backdrop of the investigation, three senior prosecutors lost their positions: First Deputy Prosecutor General Mariia Vdovychenko submitted her resignation, while officials of the Cherkasy Regional Prosecutor's Office, Viktoriia Dydych and Maksym Shchompel, were dismissed.
Contradictory data
When the materials are compared, discrepancies emerge in how the sources characterize the defense's position on the bail amount. The main case materials state that the defense sought to reduce the bail to 2 million hryvnias, citing the suspect's declared assets. At the same time, certain media headlines referring to the same hearing phrase the defense's demand differently — in terms of a multiple reduction of the sum (one headline mentions a reduction '60-fold' without fully disclosing the final figure). In addition, there is a discrepancy between the bail amount requested by the prosecution (200 million hryvnias) and the amount actually set by the court (120 million hryvnias). These inconsistencies in figures and wording are reflected in the article as they are, without being reconciled into a single version.
Thus, the appellate instance confirmed the strict pre-trial measure for one of the key defendants in the 'Carthage' case, and the resonance surrounding the investigation continues to be accompanied by personnel changes in the prosecutor's office and new arrests of associated individuals.
