29 November 2018, Thursday, 12:40 786

NACB Detectives Employing Soviet Methods In Their Work - Maksym Berezkin

Not only do detectives of the National Anticorruption Bureau (NACB) interfere in economic relations, but also utilize typical post-soviet methods of then law enforcers.

Former supervisory board chairperson of the Creative Group Maksym Berezkin said this in an interview for the Ukrainian News Agency.

"You know, what is happening right now reminds me of the 1930s, the times of the Soviet Union. While searching my home, NACB Detective Bohdan Horokhovskyi even expressed a regret that it was not 1937. I hope that was recorded on video. They literally take people hostage," he said.

In particular, Berezkin drew attention to the overstated bails set to former employees of the Creative Group being under investigation.

"They set astronomical bails of UAH 5-30 million. Those are back-breaking sums for a mid-level manager. If it had not been for our company, the people would have still been in a remand prison just for working with Berezkin some time ago. Most shocking is the fact that half of the detained people were women. It's hard to imagine what they had to experience. It was clear that the major objective for the detectives was us, former owners of the Creative Group. What did all those people have to do with it all?" he said.

Besides, Berezkin refuted public statements made by the NACB about alleged escape of his sister. "Viktoriya is abroad on personal grounds. She has not been hiding from anyone, and is always in touch. Neither her lawyers nor she have been provided with any documents. At the same time, the NACB detectives and personally Deputy Prosecutor General / Special Anticorruption Prosecutor, Nazar Kholodnytskyi, use the media to shape an opinion of the masses that Viktoriya escaped from justice abroad. They aim to intimidate her to make her stay there in order to later use that fact to manipulate public opinion, as her stay abroad would mean she has to be guilty, and if she is, the whole family is," Creative Group's former head said.

According to Berezkin, the course of the investigation itself shows that the methods of the law enforcers have not changed with time.

"Within the framework of the same meeting of the regulations committee (of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine that considered the recommendation to bring Stanyslav Berezkin, the Maksym's father, to criminal responsibility - ed. note.), Prosecutor General of Ukraine (Yurii Lutsenko) condemned the practice of detaining people under suspicion of economic frauds, however, added that the NACB and the SACPO were utilizing somewhat different approach. That means that the prosecutor general accepted that the new bodies [NACB and SACPO] established to fight corruption acted employing outdated methods. That is a bad news for the business and all those who hope that Ukraine is moving towards Europe," he concluded.

As earlier reported, the NACB and the SACPO are investigating a criminal case upon alleged involvement of member of the Ukrainian Parliament, Stanyslav Berezkin, and his family in embezzlement by the Creative Group of USD 20 million allocated by Kyiv-based Oschadbank (Savings Bank) state-run bank. In 2015, the Berezkins themselves sold the Group to a new owner along with the debt obligations including payables due 2017.

In November 2018, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine did not support the recommendation of Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yurii Lutsenko to terminate parliamentary immunity of Stanyslav Berezkin having declared the evidence in possession of the PGO not convincing.