Volodymyr Tsenov, first deputy head of the National Police's Strategic Investigations Department, at the courthouse in Kyiv on November 5.

'Carthage' Investigation: Ukrainian Security Officials Accused Of Involvement In Criminal Activities

05 Nov 2026, 20:52 by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · Join

Three senior Ukrainian security and police officers have been accused by the country's anti-graft agencies of belonging to a criminal organization, as Kyiv seeks to tackle corruption amid its bid to join the European Union.

Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) said the criminal group ran fraudulent call centers, sold drugs, and produced counterfeit foreign currency.

NABU said on November 5 that it issued formal notices of suspicion for five people, including a senior Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officer and two senior National Police officers.

The agencies said they were also preparing charges against other suspects in the investigation, which is code-named Carthage, with at least seven more people believed to be involved in the criminal organization.

Investigators say they believe the main organizer was a convict with the nickname Criminal, whom they allege is a man named Andriy Osipov. He is already in custody in a separate criminal proceeding.

According to wiretaps partially released by NABU and SAPO, Osipov ran the group alongside a Russian national with the code-name Mexican, who allegedly founded a major drug cartel and previously fled Russia for Ukraine.

Mexican was allegedly already running a network of fraudulent call centers a year ago, while Criminal was allegedly responsible for securing protection from law enforcement agencies, including the SBU, the Prosecutor-General's Office, and the national police.

The crime group was allegedly coordinating 52 such centers and paying $7,000 in monthly bribes to keep each one operating.

Volodymyr Tsenov, first deputy head of the police Strategic Investigations Department, allegedly identified in the wiretaps by the code-name Price, was believed to be among the officials who turned a blind eye to the call centers in exchange for payments, investigators said.

On November 5, the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine (HACC) ordered Tsenov to be held in pretrial detention for 60 days, with bail set at 15 million hryvnyas ($330,000).

Tsenov declined to answer reporters' questions at the courthouse.

Following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's 2026 directive to step up the fight against fraudulent call centers, Price and an SBU official code-named Akim, believed to be Major General Serhiy Duku, allegedly warned Criminal that he needed to either "shut down operations" or "go underground."

According to the investigation, Akim helped Criminal obtain data from government databases, information from criminal proceedings, and assistance with court cases and the lifting of asset freezes. He also used his connections among other law enforcement officials.

NABU and SAPO said the grouping was also involved in "planned attacks, kidnappings, and the infliction of bodily harm" in its own interests.

The data allegedly provided to Criminal by Akim included information about victims of alleged violence by the organization.

Investigators alleged men code-named Pasha and Boxer had committed violent acts on behalf of the organization. The latter, believed to be Vitaliy Rybalka, was also ordered on November 5 to be held in detention for 60 days without bail.

Rybalka told reporters he believed the charges against him were "far-fetched."

While investigators also said that a member of the Prosecutor-General's Office, identified by the call sign Oskar, was involved in the criminal activities, that office told RFE/RL that it did not know whom the investigation was referring to.

Earlier, Ukraine's former Prosecutor-General Ruslan Kravchenko claimed that NABU was conducting searches at the premises of three senior SBU officials whose units "were involved in investigating cases" against NABU chief Semen Kryvonos and members of the family of SAPO chief Oleksandr Klymenko.

Kravchenko resigned from his position in September after reports of the Carthage investigation and has fled Ukriane. On November 4, he claimed the actions of NABU and SAPO were a "political revenge and systematic attempts to destabilize the situation in the country."

Corruption remains deeply controversial in Ukraine. A top Zelenskyy aide, Andriy Yermak, was forced to resign last year as investigators probed a scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks from contractors to the state nuclear company Energoatom.

'Carthage' Investigation: Ukrainian Security Officials Accused Of Involvement In Criminal Activities

'Carthage' Investigation: Ukrainian Security Officials Accused Of Involvement In Criminal Activities

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