Two NABU detectives were caught in large-scale corruption: they bought luxury apartments near the bureau, and transferred millions abroad

Detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, Roman Nedov and Valentyn Shmitko, have been caught in a corruption scandal – they hid luxury real estate, transferred millions abroad and helped evaders escape mobilization. This is reported in the investigation of Informator.ua.

Thus, according to journalists, Roman Nedov – Deputy Head of the NABU Unit – has acquired several luxury properties in Kyiv for his family in recent years. However, these purchases were made in the name of his wife's mother, and later – with a clear understatement of the value – were donated to the detective's wife.

Nedov's mother-in-law purchased an apartment in the elite Sherwood residential complex in Kyiv near the NABU. In the period from 2018 to 2020, the area of the apartment was "reduced" in the documents. As a result of the manipulations, the housing was revalued with a decrease in the value of the apartment by almost three times: from 98 thousand US dollars to about 37 thousand US dollars. With this price, the apartment was donated to Nedov's wife and appeared in the detective's declaration for 2020. In fact, apartments in this building with renovation and this area cost from 200 thousand dollars today

 

Another apartment on Povitroflotskyi Avenue was transferred to the ownership of Nedov's wife according to a similar scheme, the investigation says. In addition to housing, the family uses a luxury car, declared at almost half the price.

Another NABU employee, Valentyn Shmitko, who heads one of the Bureau's units, has been declaring significant amounts of cash for several years, sometimes amounting to two-thirds of his annual income, in order to then transfer them abroad, the media writes.

"Shmitko simply declared large sums of money every year as cash savings: in 2017 – UAH 425,000, in 2019 – UAH 521,000, in 2020 – UAH 619,000, in 2021 – UAH 625,000, in 2024 – UAH 670,000. These amounts sometimes amounted to 2/3 of his official income for the year. And in 2024, he took and withdrew UAH 4,350,725 from the country," the article says.

At the same time, as journalists found out, Shmitko's wife has been vacationing in the resorts of Europe and the USA since the beginning of the full-scale war, but receives state social assistance in Ukraine.

"This is not the geography of Ukrainian refugees – this is an expensive vacation paid for by her husband. At the same time, he makes "savings". We think everyone understands from what income this is done," the article says.

In addition to concealing income, Valentyn Shmitko, according to the investigation, was involved in an attempt to avoid mobilization by his acquaintance, who was wanted.

"Shmitko's friend with a pile of cash in the car was stopped at night. Of course, they checked the documents and it turned out that he was wanted. Shmitko came at night to "take care of it", but he "took care of it" so much that he received charges together with his evader friend. The NABU leadership bailed Shmitko out of court, and his evader friend out of mobilization," the authors of the investigation note.

The editors of the publication offered the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption to launch an investigation into these individuals.

"The NAPC has an inexhaustible amount of work. One gets the impression that if you check any NABU detective, you will find suspicious machinations: with money, cars, apartments, houses. All these cases will have to be investigated and given a legal assessment, as required by law. Something suggests that when this happens, "simple" small detectives will move into the status of non-simple defendants in corruption on a particularly large scale," the article says.

This is not the first journalistic investigation that raises the issue of dishonesty of NABU employees. The Bureau was created in 2015 as a key body to combat corruption in the highest echelons of power. However, recently the number of scandals surrounding its activities has only increased. In society, calls for the liquidation of the bureau and the creation of a new effective anti-corruption institution are becoming increasingly active.