Five Suspects In Carthage Case Notified Of Charges, Including Senior SBU And National Police Officials

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) That is according to the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) and NABU, Ukrinform reports.

According to the investigation, members of the organization had established a system of regularly paying illegal benefits to senior law enforcement officials in exchange for allowing fraudulent call centers and other illegal businesses to operate without interference.

The newly identified suspects include:

• The head of the criminal organization, who is charged with creating and leading the organization, organizing the provision of illegal benefits to officials, torture, counterfeiting currency, and laundering proceeds of crime (Part 1 of Article 255; Part 3 of Article 27, Part 3 of Article 369; Part 3 of Article 27, Part 3 of Article 127; Part 3 of Article 27, Part 3 of Article 199; and Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
• The first deputy head of an SBU department, suspected of participating in a criminal organization (Part 3 of Article 255 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
• The head of a National Police department, suspected of participating in a criminal organization and receiving illegal benefits (Part 3 of Article 255 and Part 4 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
• The deputy head of a unit within the Criminal Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Kyiv Region, suspected of participating in a criminal organization and aiding and abetting torture and currency counterfeiting (Part 3 of Article 255; Part 5 of Article 27, Part 3 of Article 127; and Part 5 of Article 27, Part 3 of Article 199 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
• An associate of the head of the criminal organization, charged with participating in the organization and torture (Part 2 of Article 255 and Part 3 of Article 127 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The pre-trial investigation established that the head of the criminal organization, who had previously been convicted several times, allegedly recruited serving senior officials from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Prosecutor General's Office and the National Police, as well as representatives of the criminal underworld, into the illegal operation.

Read also: Poklad dismisses two SBU officials implicated in Carthage case

According to law enforcement officials, this may have enabled fraudulent call centers that defrauded Ukrainian and foreign citizens to operate without interference, as well as the sale of narcotic drugs and the illegal production of counterfeit cigarettes and foreign currency, among other activities.

In addition, investigators are examining whether members of the organization were involved in assaults, kidnappings and causing bodily harm in the organization's interests.

NABU believes the criminal organization used corrupt ties within law enforcement agencies to shield its illegal activities and generate illicit profits. Investigators have preliminarily established that at least 12 people were involved in the organization. The investigation is ongoing.

On November 4, NABU announced that it had exposed a criminal organization as part of Operation Carthage. Its members are suspected of systematically paying illegal benefits to senior law enforcement officials in exchange for allowing fraudulent call centers and other illegal businesses to operate without interference.

According to NABU, the organization may have controlled at least 52 call centers in Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk. Each call center allegedly paid $7,000 a month for "protection," with the money transferred to a cryptocurrency wallet.

The investigation established that serving senior officials from the SBU, the National Police and the Prosecutor General's Office, as well as representatives of the criminal underworld, were involved in the criminal activities.

The National Police said that officers against whom NABU had taken procedural steps had been suspended from their duties pending an internal investigation. SBU Head Oleksandr Poklad also dismissed two senior officials of the agency who had become subjects of the investigation.

Earlier, on September 4, NABU and SAPO announced that, as part of Operation Carthage, they had exposed a criminal organization that, according to law enforcement officials, systematically collected bribes from fraudulent call centers and laundered the proceeds.

Among those notified of suspicion at the time was Serhii Kropyva, deputy head of the Prosecutor General's Office's Department for International Legal Cooperation. According to the investigation, he set up the group in mid-2025, recruiting serving prosecutors and close associates. NABU says the members extorted bribes in exchange for allowing shadow call centers that defrauded large numbers of Ukrainians and foreign nationals to operate without interference.

Following the detention of Prosecutor General's Office employees, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko submitted his resignation.

On September 15, President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Kravchenko as prosecutor general after parliament approved the decision.

Before the parliamentary vote on his resignation, Kravchenko left on a business trip abroad. The Prosecutor General's Office later said that he had submitted a resignation letter from the prosecution service. According to media reports, he is currently in Austria.

Photo: NABU

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