‘The Anti-Corruption Action Center is putting pressure on NABU staff and undermining its independence’, – said NABU

The First Deputy Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Gizo Uglava, has appealed to international organizations and the Public Control Council of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau to protect the bureau from external pressure from anti-corruption activists. In particular, from the actions of the Anti-Corruption Action Center led by Vitaliy Shabunin.

This is stated in Uglava’s letter.

He claims that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau is facing the biggest challenge in its history.

“This time, individuals with their own unhealthy ambitions have decided to create discord within the team. As a result, they aim to destroy the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, and then, through manual control under the guise of ‘re-certification,’ ‘fix’ it,” Uglava notes.

He refers to an artificial scandal regarding the alleged disclosure of pre-trial investigation information by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Uglava emphasizes that such accusations are baseless.

“This increasingly looks like persecution by certain representatives of public organizations. This discreditation campaign was part of a plan by the Anti-Corruption Action Center to secretly influence and control the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.”

Previously, Uglava sued the Anti-Corruption Action Center and its head, Vitaliy Shabunin, demanding they retract the false information they spread about the data leak.

Several media outlets note that former NABU Director Artem Sytnyk was under Shabunin’s control. Both are listed in the Registry of Corrupt Officials.

At the same time, according to the media, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, Daria Kaleniuk, bought a Toyota RAV4 during the war, registering it under her husband’s name, who is avoiding mobilization.

Shabunin is listed as a combat medic and receives allowances for service while remaining in Kyiv. The State Bureau of Investigations of Ukraine is investigating several criminal cases against the activist: for evading mobilization, falsifying documents of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and illegal use of humanitarian aid for profit. As well as appropriation of vehicles, military and special equipment.

It should be noted that Shabunin was exposed for appropriating and using a Nissan Pathfinder jeep, which was provided as humanitarian aid for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, to travel around Kyiv.

Besides Shabunin, other public activists are also evading military service, including journalists Yuriy Nikolov and Maksym Savchuk, head of the DEJURE Foundation Mykhailo Zhernakov, StateWatch expert Oleksandr Lemenov and chief editor of the Chesno movement Oleksandr Salizhenko, among others.