U.S. offers $2 M reward for fugitives
The U.S. Secret Service has announced a $2 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of two Ukrainian men accused of hacking into the Securities and Exchange Commission’s data system. Artem Radchenko, 28, and Oleksandr Ieremenko, 28, acquired inside information on publicly traded companies by stealing test versions of quarterly and annual reports filed with the SEC but not yet available to investors, the Secret Service said in a statement on July 22. The two men earned over $4.5 million in illicit profit by both selling the inside information to others and trading on it. Messrs. Radchenko and Ieremenko carried out their scheme for more than a year, the Secret Service said. The reward, which consists of $1 million for helping capture each individual, is an unprecedented step by the Secret Service. “For the first time in agency history, we are able to strategically leverage resources worldwide in the pursuit of a wanted fugitive charged with the exploitation and manipulation of our financial systems,” U.S. Secret Service Director James M. Murray said in a statement. A federal grand jury in the District of New Jersey last year charged Messrs. Radchenko and Ieremenko with securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, computer fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and computer fraud in a 16-count indictment. Messrs. Radchenko and Ieremenko were born in Kyiv, according to information published by the Secret Service. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also announced the reward on Twitter. “We will continue working with @TheJusticeDept to protect American citizens and other nations from being victimized by cyber-crime,” he said in the tweet. (RFE/RL)
Sea Breeze drills commence in Ukraine
Sea Breeze 2020, a multinational naval exercise, has been launched in the Ukrainian waters of the Black Sea. The commander of the Ukrainian Navy, Oleksiy Neizhpapa, and Vice-Admiral Gene Black, commander of the U.S. 6th Fleet, announced the commencement of the maneuvers via a video statement on July 20. Vice-Admiral Black said that the Sea Breeze maneuvers’ goal is to increase maritime regional security in the Black Sea. According to him, personnel from nine countries, 27 vessels and 19 aircraft are taking part in the exercises. The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Porter entered the Black Sea to participate in the drills the day before. Additional U.S. Navy P-8 aircraft from Patrol Squadron VP (47) will be participating in the U.S. and Ukrainian co-hosted drills. The maneuvers were expected to last until July 26. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said earlier that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year Sea Breeze drills will be limited to the marine phase only with the involvement of aviation. Ships of partner countries will dock at Ukrainian ports only if refueling is necessary. Sea Breeze is an annual multinational exercise that has been held since 1997. (Crime Desk, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Ukraine cancels some visa requirements
Ukraine says it has canceled visa requirements for citizens of Australia, New Zealand, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia. As of August 1, tourists from the six countries will no longer need a visa to visit Ukraine if their visits do not exceed 90 days. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the decree on July 21. Last month, Mr. Zelenskyy said Ukraine was looking into the possible cancellation of visa requirements for visitors from several countries, including China, in order to attract more tourists after restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus are lifted. Last year, Ukraine introduced electronic visas for citizens of 52 countries, including China and Australia. Citizens of all former Soviet republics, the United States, Canada, the European Union, and several countries in South America can enter Ukraine for up to 90 days without a visa. Citizens of five former Soviet republics – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Uzbekistan – can enter Ukraine without a visa for an indefinite stay. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters)
Iran blames misaligned radar, human error
Iranian authorities say a misaligned missile battery and miscommunication between soldiers and superior officers were to blame for the January downing of a Ukrainian jetliner that killed 176 people. The conclusions by Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization were detailed in a new report released late on July 11. Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 was struck by two missiles and crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran’s main airport on January 8. The disaster happened the same night that Iran launched a ballistic-missile attack that targeted U.S. soldiers in Iraq. That attack was in response to an American drone strike that had killed the powerful commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, Major General Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad five days earlier. “A failure occurred due to a human error in following the procedure” for aligning the radar, causing a “107-degree error” in the system, the Civil Aviation Authority said in its report. The authority said the document was a “factual report” and not the final report for the accident. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP and AFP)
Iran hands over flight recorders
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has welcomed Iran’s handover to France of the flight recorders from a Ukrainian airliner that was downed shortly after taking off from Tehran on January 8. French investigators have begun working on extracting data from the black boxes recovered from the Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) jet that was downed by a missile, killing all 176 people on board. France’s BEA accident investigation bureau said on July 20 that the cockpit voice recorder will be accessed first, and then the flight data recorder, in a process that is expected to take several days. Iranian forces say they downed the Boeing 737 on January 8 after mistaking it for an incoming missile at a time of high tensions with the United States. Iran later called it a “disastrous mistake” by forces who were on high alert. Mr. Zelenskyy said Ukrainian experts would take part in decoding the black boxes, alongside air accident investigators from France, the United States, and Canada. Iran agreed in June to send the black boxes to the BEA for analysis, ending a long dispute with Canada, Ukraine and France over access to the data. Many of the crash victims were Canadian citizens or permanent residents, or had Canada as their final destination. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by Reuters and AFP)
Russia urged to accept responsibility for MH17
Ukraine and its Western partners have marked the sixth anniversary of the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger flight over eastern Ukraine by calling on Russia to cooperate fully with the investigation into the tragedy and accept its responsibility. Prosecutors have argued that MH17 was shot down on July 17, 2014, by a Russian-made Buk anti-aircraft system fired by Russia-backed militants who had acquired it from a Russian military base on the border between the two countries. All 298 people on board were killed. Four suspects, three Russians and one Ukrainian, are being tried in absentia for involvement in the tragedy. Moscow has denied any involvement in the downing and the conflict in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which has killed more than 13,000 people since April 2014. “Ukraine calls on Russia to accept its responsibility and adhere to its international obligations, namely… to cooperate with the ongoing investigation and criminal proceedings,” Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement on July 17. The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said Russia should “cooperate fully with the investigation and efforts to establish accountability.” Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Kristina Kvien said in a video posted on Twitter: “Russia must ensure that every indicted individual currently in Russia or Russia-controlled territory face justice. Russia has repeatedly obstructed progress on measures to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine which it started and continues to fuel.” Meanwhile, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc expects Russia to accept its responsibility for the Ukrainian plane’s downing and to fully cooperate with efforts to establish accountability. The sixth anniversary of the tragedy came a week after the Dutch government announced it was taking Russia to the European Court of Human Rights for its alleged role. Nearly two-thirds of the crash’s victims were Dutch nationals. (RFE/RL)
Court eases pretrial restrictions for Duhar
A Kyiv court has eased pretrial restrictions for one of the suspects in the high-profile 2016 killing of journalist Pavel Sheremet in the Ukrainian capital. The Kyiv Court of Appeals on July 13 agreed to lift curfew restrictions for military paramedic Yana Duhar. The court also said Ms. Duhar no longer needed to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. But the court said she is still banned from communicating with witnesses in the high-profile case and must be present when summoned by investigators or prosecutors. The court on July 13 also remanded Andriy Antonenko, another suspect, in custody. The third suspect, Yulia Kuzmenko, a pediatric surgeon, is also being held in pretrial detention. Vladyslav and Inna Hryshchenko, a married couple who are suspected in another unrelated case, have been declared persons of interest in the case. All five took part in military operations in different capacities in Ukraine’s east, where government forces are fighting against Russia-backed separatists. The Internal Affairs Ministry and the National Police said in December 2019 that the group’s goal was “to destabilize the political and social situation in Ukraine” by killing Sheremet. Sheremet, a Belarusian-born Russian citizen who had made Kyiv his permanent home, was leaving his apartment to head to the studio where he hosted a morning radio program when an improvised explosive device planted under his vehicle exploded on July 20, 2016, killing him instantly. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Kolomoisky bids for more media assets
A company controlled by Ukrainian billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky is bidding to manage the assets of a local media company, potentially giving the tycoon greater influence over the nation’s news content. A subsidiary of Mr. Kolomoisky’s 1+1 Media Group is one of six companies vying for UMH Holding, once the leading media company in Ukraine, the Kyiv Post reported. A state agency charged with recovering and managing assets stolen during the tenure of President Viktor Yanukovych is handling the bidding process. Fugitive oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko bought UHM in 2013 for $400 million, but a Ukrainian court seized the asset in 2017 on the grounds that the money had been acquired illegally. Though no longer wielding the same influence as in previous years, UMH Holding still owns 72 legal entities, including newspapers, radio stations, magazines and websites. It also possesses the intellectual property rights on 283 trademarks as well as printing equipment. Mr. Kolomoisky’s media assets are credited with helping comic-turned-politician Volodymyr Zelenskyy defeat incumbent Petro Poroshenko in a landslide in the April 2019 presidential election. His media empire already includes seven television channels, a group of Internet sites and a production department, among other assets. Ukraine’s wealthiest oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov, has criticized the bidding process for UMH Holding, calling it “a covert transfer of broadcasting licenses” that violates local broadcasting laws. Mr. Akhmetov also owns media assets. (RFE/RL, with reporting by the Kyiv Post)
Additional cases against Poroshenko
The Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) has launched four additional criminal cases against former President Petro Poroshenko, his lawyer Ihor Holovan said on July 10. According to Mr. Holovan, the probes were launched at the request of tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky, who accuses Mr. Poroshenko of interference with the activities of PrivatBank – once owned by Mr. Kolomoisky – revealing sensitive information regarding PrivatBank’s activities, abuse of office and money laundering. Mr. Holovan called all the accusations against his client “politically motivated.” Mr. Kolomoisky, Mr. Poroshenko’s long-time foe, lost control over PrivatBank in 2016 when the central bank took it over after it failed stress tests and was deemed to be undercapitalized. Mr. Poroshenko was president at that time. Mr. Kolomoisky lived in self-imposed exile for nearly two years and returned after Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s election as president in April 2019. Mr. Kolomoisky’s ties to Mr. Zelenskyy, who rose to fame as an actor on a TV channel owned by Mr. Kolomoisky, had raised concerns about the president’s independence from the oligarch. On July 1, Mr. Poroshenko said that 24 probes have been launched against him, claiming that his successor “is behind all of them.” Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General Iryna Venedyktova rejected Mr. Poroshenko’s claims, saying that the probes have nothing to do with politics. On July 8, Ms. Venedyktova withdrew the PGO’s request to place Mr. Poroshenko under pretrial arrest in one of the cases against him. The case is related to his alleged illegal appointment of a deputy chief of the country’s foreign intelligence service. Ms. Venedyktova said that the investigations in that case had been completed. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Kyiv plans railway transport hubs
The draft general plan of Kyiv includes the construction of an external bypassing railroad from Nizhyn to Korosten for freight traffic that has recently overloaded the capital’s railway hubs. The press service of Kyiv City State Administration said that the main railway development measures include: construction of a railway junction at various levels near the Livyi Bereh (Left Bank) stop; construction of additional running lines on the sections Kyiv-Demiyivsky-Darnytsia, Zhuliany-Hlevakha, Kyiv-Myronivka; closure of 66 low-density lines at 10 freight stations; creation of three transport and storage facilities; and closure of several freight stations and freight yards. As reported earlier, the draft general plan of Kyiv also envisages the construction of two new bus stations at Kyiv’s exits and the shutdown of the Central Bus Station. (Interfax-Ukraine)