Combating corruption

Ukrainian investigators on Tuesday said they had opened a criminal case into suspected extortion by officials at a sister anti-corruption agency, based partly on information from a whistleblower who also implicated the president’s office. The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NAZK) is a keystone of Western-backed reforms but has been criticized for making slow progress with its main task of verifying officials’ wealth declarations for evidence of ill-gotten gains. NABU - a sister agency investigating high-profile corruption cases - said it opened the case against NAZK officials on suspicion they received “undue benefits in especially large amounts, combined with the extortion of such benefits.”  Officials at other state bodies are also being investigated, a NABU spokeswoman said, without giving further details. While details of the case are not yet clear, the fact that a state-run anti-corruption agency is itself being investigated for corruption suggests the authoritie

Every time there is a major leak of offshore documents, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko seems to get caught in another discrepancy regarding his plans for Roshen, his candy company. The latest leak, the Paradise Papers, gives the most detailed view to date of Poroshenko’s true intentions for the troubled restructuring of his confectionary empire. During his election campaign, Poroshenko publicly promised to sell his business if elected. But just days afterwards, his lawyers were asking a legal services firm to set up a structure that would allow him to move his company offshore, evade Ukrainian taxes, and stash money abroad. Citing the risks of associating with him, the firm eventually declined to deal with Poroshenko.   He ended up setting up a similar offshore structure with a different, less wary firm. A separate financial filing discovered by reporters raises questions about whether Poroshenko’s claims not to have moved any Ukrainian cash to his offshore holdings are t