Ukraine prosecutor general steps down amid scam call center bribery probe

Ukraine prosecutor general steps down amid scam call center bribery probe

Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko, resigned this week over allegations that officials in his office took bribes to shield fraudulent call centers from law enforcement.

“This is a political decision, and I made it consciously,” Kravchenko said Monday. “I do not want the position of prosecutor general to be used as a tool in political confrontation.”

Kravchenko has not been charged in the case and has denied protecting the call centers.

His resignation follows an investigation by Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies into what they describe as a criminal organization operating with the help of officials inside the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Investigators allege that since mid-2025, officials collected bribes from fraudulent call centers in exchange for ensuring that law enforcement did not disrupt their operations. The centers targeted victims in Ukraine and abroad.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, known as NABU, said five people have been named as suspects.

Among them is Serhii Kropyva, a senior official in the Prosecutor General’s Office who was detained in connection with the case. Ukraine’s Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, or SAP, described Kropyva as a “trusted associate” of Kravchenko and said the two had “friendly, informal relations.”

A Ukrainian anti-corruption court on Monday ordered Kropyva held in custody and set bail at 120 million hryvnias, or about $2.7 million. He is suspected of laundering assets worth more than 89 million hryvnias, or roughly $2 million, and has been suspended from his duties.

Investigators allege that members of the network laundered proceeds from the scheme through property, jewelry and other valuable assets.

Kravchenko denies involvement

Kravchenko has categorically denied that he protected fraudulent call centers.

“I have nothing to do with protecting illegal call centers, I gave no instructions to facilitate such activity, and I did not use the powers of the prosecutor general for this purpose,” he said.

Kravchenko also pointed to his office’s record of going after fraudulent call centers, saying authorities conducted more than 1,000 searches over the previous year, shut down about 340 call centers and dismantled more than 5,000 operator workstations.

But recordings released by NABU have raised questions about whether the alleged scheme reached the top of the Prosecutor General’s Office.

The recordings mention a person described as the group’s “boss,” who allegedly protected its operations. Participants call him by the patronymic name Andriiovych and say he previously headed Ukraine’s State Tax Service, which Kravchenko ran from 2024 to 2025.

NABU has not publicly identified Kravchenko as that person and has not charged him in the case.

Scam centers

Fraudulent call centers have become a persistent problem in Ukraine, with organized groups using large teams of operators to contact potential victims and manipulate them into handing over money or to grant access to their bank accounts.

According to Ukraine’s National Police, scammers commonly pose as bank employees, police officers or financial advisers. Some direct victims to fake investment platforms, while others use techniques such as caller ID spoofing to make fraudulent calls appear legitimate.

Their targets extend well beyond Ukraine.

In July, Ukrainian cyber police said they dismantled a Kyiv call center that allegedly stole more than $500,000 from dozens of Americans. Investigators said the operation recruited English-speaking workers, including people from the United States, West Africa and European countries, who posed as financial advisers and persuaded victims to invest in fictitious assets.

A month later, Ukrainian authorities launched a nationwide crackdown on fraudulent call centers. Police, working with the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General’s Office, said they conducted 411 searches and shut down 94 call centers in a single week.