Ukrainian prosecutors said they intercepted a multimillion-dollar bribe intended to be used in an effort to stop a criminal investigation into the founder of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company that once employed Hunter Biden. former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, on its board.
At a Saturday news conference in Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities put on display a pile of U.S. currency wrapped in plastic bags they said was sent to government offices to stop a criminal investigation into Mykola Zlochevsky, Burisma’s founder and the former minister of ecology, who is suspected of using his government position for personal benefit.
Ukrainian prosecutor Nazar Kholodnitsky, tasked with investigating corruption, and Artem Sytnik, head of the country’s anti-corruption bureau, announced that three people, including a top taxation service official, were arrested in connection with the bribe. Neither of the Bidens were involved, according to Kholodnitsky.
Burisma claimed to have nothing to do with the attempted bribe.
“Neither Burisma Group President Mykola Zlochevsky nor other employees of the company have any relationship to the voiced events. Mykola Zlochevsky didn’t ask for anyone to commit wrong actions and never contributed to such actions,” the company said in a statement.
Burisma was at the center of President Trump’s impeachment trial, in which Democrats accused Trump of improperly pressuring Ukraine for political dirt on the Bidens and others in exchange for foreign aid, using personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to conduct shadow diplomacy outside normal channels in meeting with Ukrainians to conduct research on alleged corruption.
Joe Biden boasted that he pressured Ukraine to fire a top prosecutor whose office had investigated the Burisma owner by threatening to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees.
The former vice president has repeatedly denied doing so in order to protect his son, who left the board of Burisma in 2019, in the face of corruption allegations by Trump and his allies.
Trump became the third president in history to be impeached in December 2019. He was acquitted on two articles of impeachment, which included allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, by the GOP-controlled Senate in February.
