Head of SAPO Nazar Kholodnytskyi resigned from Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.

On December 1,  his 5-year term in office was supposed to end, and this fall we expected to launch the competition for the position of the new Head of SAPO.

We decided to recall what we remembered him for.

In 2015, Nazar Kholodnytskyi got 7 votes from the Competition Commission. His candidacy was provided to Prosecutor General Shokin together with the candidacy of Maxym Gryshchuk, who later became the first Deputy Head of the SAPO.

After that, Nazar Kholodnytskyi together with his team has created a Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office almost from scratch. And the results of this work are noticeable.

During the 5 years of SAPO’s work, more than 200 cases were sent to the court, and 390 persons were charged, about 40 were convicted.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the case of the “big fish”. Thus, the criminal proceedings against ex-deputies Olexander Onyshchenko, Maxym Mykytas, Mykola Martynenko, Boryslav Rosenblat and Maxym Polyakov received high publicity. For more than a year, public attention has been focused on the case of “KAC films” and the case concerning the method of forming the price of coal called “Rotterdam+”.

However, despite significant progress in anti-corruption, the name of Nazar Kholodnytskyi is also associated with a number of scandals.

In 2016, Nazar Kholodnytskyi received the largest awards among all Ukrainian officials: in total, more than UAH 800 thousand. He explained this by the fact that according to the law, both the Head of the SAPO and the average prosecutor have the same salaries, but the responsibility they have is different.

In 2018, the NABU, together with the PGO, wiretapped his office as part of criminal proceedings. Then it became clear that Kholodnytskyi could transmit information to suspects about the preparation of searches, exert pressure on officials and force witnesses to give false testimony.

Kholodnytskyi himself said in his explanations that he was simply “trying to establish psychological contact” and “enter into trust” with the defendants of the proceedings. In the end, the Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of the Public Prosecutors reprimanded him.

Also, Kholodnytskyi was offered bribes several times that resulted in high-profile revelations. The last case is the story of US 5 million for closing the case against Zlochevskyi. Recently, the name of Nazar Kholodnytskyi was also often heard in connection with his “war” with the Prosecutor General Venediktova.

Kholodnytskyi stressed he did not cling to his position at SAPO. And despite some conflicts with NABU, in the last year these two institutions have shown surprisingly well-coordinated work, which has given hope for significant changes in anti-corruption investigations.

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Kholodnytskyi stressed he did not cling to his position at SAPO. And despite some conflicts with NABU, in the last year these two institutions have shown surprisingly well-coordinated work, which has given hope for significant changes in anti-corruption investigations.