Ukrainian investigators suspect a lawmaker of making an attempt to bribe the pinnacle of a authorities reconstruction company within the nation’s first-ever documented cryptocurrency kickback, authorities mentioned on Tuesday.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) mentioned the lawmaker, a member of parliament’s anti-corruption committee, is believed to have provided the equal of $50,000 in bitcoin in change for state funds to rebuild infrastructure underneath his management.
The bureau didn’t title the official, who was served by prosecutors with an official discover of suspicion.
The head of Ukraine’s State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development reported the bribe to authorities after receiving the primary $10,000 tranche, NABU mentioned.
“This is the primary unlawful profit in cryptocurrency within the historical past of (Ukraine’s) anti-corruption establishments that has been documented,” the company mentioned in an announcement.
Ukraine has stepped up efforts to stamp out corruption because it pursues membership of the European Union, which has made the struggle towards graft a key situation for negotiations to start.
In an interview with Reuters earlier this yr, NABU chief Semen Kryvonos mentioned his company would prioritise preventing wartime crimes in strategic sectors like defence and reconstruction.
On Tuesday, investigators introduced they suspected two high-ranking cyber safety officers of embezzlement.
In an announcement on Facebook, the state reconstruction company mentioned zero tolerance of graft was “a key precept” of its work.
“Our cooperation with legislation enforcement and anti-corruption companies was and shall be systemic,” it mentioned.
