Some aspects of Operation 'Midas' still undercover; the public will learn about them later – SAPO head

Operation "Midas," as a large-scale anti-corruption investigation, has not yet been completed; some directions of the investigation are at the stage of a covert operation, and the public will learn about them later Oleksandr Klymenko, Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), has said.

"We developed a corresponding mechanism on how to keep all investigations confidential even in the event of an information leak from any direction of the investigation, so that we could continue other directions," Klymenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.

According to him, the operation itself consisted of many directions of investigation carried out by different units of detectives. "None of the heads of the main units knew the entire operation, all its components, and in which directions other units were moving—this was known only to me directly and the Director of the Bureau," the head of SAPO explained.

That is, as he noted, Operation "Midas" is an investigation in various directions by different groups of detectives and prosecutors.

"Some directions of the investigation are already known to you, some are at the stage of a hidden operation, an undercover operation, so the public will learn about them later," Klymenko said.

He added: "We had an agreement (with National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine [NABU] Director Semen Kryvonos – IF-U) that if a leak occurred regarding the entire operation, it would be either you (the NABU Director) or I, so that there would be no possibility of redirecting it to someone else."

According to the head of SAPO, the success of this operation depends on two things—impeccably collected evidence and the prevention of any politicization of the criminal proceedings.

That is why, as Klymenko noted, any attempts to discredit the investigation or the activities of detectives or prosecutors are "attempts to somehow hinder this investigation."