Operation “Carthage”: NABU conducts searches at prosecutor general Kravchenko’s office and his deputy’s

The Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG) of Ukraine has confirmed that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) conducted searches in the offices of OPG head Ruslan Kravchenko and his first deputy Maria Vdovychenko as part of a case involving fraudulent call centers.

The day before, media outlets had reported the searches, but the prosecutor’s office denied them. The OPG’s press service has now confirmed the searches took place but questioned their legal grounds.

According to the OPG’s account, the court ruling used as justification for the search of the prosecutor general’s office cited a conversation between an OPG employee about renovations to premises used by Kravchenko. The conversation involved discussions of “dark tiles,” the installation of an alarm system, and interior sensors. NABU, according to the OPG, linked the renovation expenses to money that may have been of criminal origin. The Office of the Prosecutor General maintains that the materials contain no direct evidence that Kravchenko received money from call centers or that they paid for the renovation, and that this connection is based primarily on assumptions.

Regarding the search of Vdovychenko’s office, the OPG states that the recorded conversations concerned the organization of investigative actions against call centers, but that investigators used them as one of the arguments supporting a theory of possible assistance to those same structures.

The OPG separately reported that during the searches, detectives gained access to materials from other criminal proceedings — including those involving individuals connected to the leadership of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), as well as NABU and SAPO employees. The Office of the Prosecutor General intends to verify whether such access was consistent with the court’s authorization and whether the detectives had the right to examine, copy, or seize those materials.

The OPG also confirmed that one of its employees is named in NABU’s case involving fraudulent call centers. An internal investigation has been opened against him, and the question of his dismissal is being considered.

In parallel, the outlet Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, citing its own sources, reported that Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko is at the Dobrobut clinic on Novopecherski Lypky in Kyiv. However, OPG spokeswoman Natalia Bayurko denied this information, stating that Kravchenko is at his workplace. Earlier, Ukrainska Pravda reported that following NABU’s publication of new recordings as part of Operation Carthage, Kravchenko’s whereabouts could not be established for more than 12 hours.

The recordings published by NABU feature a person with the code name “Chef,” who previously headed the tax authority and who is referred to by his patronymic — Andriyovych. Dzerkalo Tyzhnia notes that these details may point to Kravchenko.

NABU announced the exposure of a criminal organization led by the head of one of the Office of the Prosecutor General’s departments. According to investigators, the organization provided a protection racket for fraudulent call centers and laundered the proceeds. Media outlets reported that NABU and SAPO detained the head of the OPG’s cyber department, Serhiy Kropiva, in connection with the case involving the alleged protection of fraudulent call centers and the legalization of assets.