NABU: what has been published on Operation Carthage is only the “tip of the iceberg”

A significant portion of the materials from Operation Carthage has not yet been made public, and what has been released is only the “tip of the iceberg.”

This was reported by Oleksandr Abakumov, head of the detective unit of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).

“What you have seen is only the tip of the iceberg. We showed only what we could show without harming the interests of the investigation. A significant part of the materials cannot yet be made public. And believe me, the darkest part of this corruption iceberg still remains under water,” he wrote on Facebook (banned in Russia; owned by Meta Corporation, recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation).

According to Abakumov, in the second phase of the operation, charges were filed against the first five members of a new criminal organization, which, according to the investigation, involved at least 12 people.

“We showed how, according to the investigation’s version, a system for shielding dozens of fraudulent call centers could have operated. How representatives of the criminal underworld and law enforcement interacted. How attacks on people who dared to oppose the criminal business were discussed. And this is only part of what we were able to establish,” he added.

Last week, as part of Operation Carthage, NABU simultaneously conducted more than 70 searches across the country — in the police, the SBU, the prosecutor’s office, courts, and currency exchange offices. It was announced that a new criminal organization had been exposed. Its members, with the assistance of high-ranking officers of the SBU, the National Police, and the Prosecutor General’s Office, were engaged in fraudulent call centers, drug sales, and other illegal business.

Against this backdrop, the SBU announced the dismissal of two high-ranking officers. Their names were not disclosed, but Ukrainian media reported that searches were conducted at the home of the head of the service’s main internal security directorate, Colonel Anton Kravchuk, and the first deputy head of the department for the protection of national statehood, General Serhiy Duka. After that, media reported Duka’s detention.

According to the publication Strana, NABU’s new attack on the SBU is aimed at weakening Volodymyr Zelensky’s control over the security forces.