kyiv, Ukraine.- The president of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, Vsevolod Kniazev, has been detained as part of an investigation into a $2.7 million bribery case.
“The head of the Supreme Court was arrested,” Oleksander Omelchenko, an anti-corruption prosecutor, told a news conference in kyiv on Tuesday.
This is the largest case affecting the judiciary, according to the head of the national anti-corruption office, Sergei Krivonos.
According to anti-corruption officials, Ukrainian billionaire Kostiantin Jevago – whom Ukraine is seeking to extradite from France – agreed with a law firm to pay a $2.7 million bribe to the Supreme Court.
With an estimated fortune of $1.4 billion, Jevago is the fifth richest person in Ukraine. Owner of the mining group Ferrexpo, this former deputy has been on the list of people wanted by the Ukrainian justice system for “financial offenses” for several years.
He is accused of having embezzled $113 million from his Finance and Credit Bank, which failed in 2015. He was arrested in France in December 2022 and released under judicial control the following month.
