Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Artem Sytnyk has named proceedings, the negative processes around which served as a ground for opening criminal proceedings against Head of Ukraine's Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), Deputy Prosecutor General Nazar Kholodnytsky.

"This is a case of embezzlement by officials of the city hall in Odesa, cases opened under the application of acting Minister of Health Uliana Suprun over the fact of offering her a bribe, the case concerning the Golden Mandarin firm, which is affiliated with People's Deputy Lohvynsky [Heorhiy Lohvynsky from People's Front faction], investigations related to e-declarations of senior officials, investigations related to the business interests of the owner of a large agricultural holding. It is difficult to imagine what we could have heard if the records were kept not for four weeks, but four months..," he said in an interview with the ZN.UA online publication.

Sytnyk said that the records made in the office of Kholodnytsky contain data on "the leakage of information about the preparations for searches to those people where these searches are to be carried out, about pressure on certain officials to make certain decisions."

"It's not just about prosecutors, but especially about the prosecutors. There are prosecutors who want to work normally, but people holding administrative posts in the SAPO do not let them do this. The prosecutor brings up draft suspicion papers, but instead gets a scolding, and the matter is being made slow," the NABU Director said.

In addition, he said, the records are about the pressure on the court to make illegal decisions. "In particular, the pressure on the court was for the purpose that the court does not hear the request of the NABU detectives to conduct a search from a person who is a friend of Kholodnytsky," Sytnyk said.

He said that a witness was also incited to give false testimony.

The NABU director said that the sign indicating illegal and improper actions on the part of the SAPO head was that the investigations were constantly hampered, the necessary procedural documents were not signed for months, and some suspicions were not signed within a year and a half or two.