Watchers of Ukraine’s NewsOne television channel on September 25 were treated to what was suggested to be a congressional hearing in Washington about corruption in the National Bank of Ukraine (the NBU), which is the Ukrainian equivalent of the Federal Reserve Board.
The event, which took place in the basement of the U.S. Capitol, Room HC 8, was billed by the Ukrainian television channel as a meeting of the “US Congressional Committee on Financial Issues.” NewsOne teased it this way:
Except, what was broadcast was not a hearing of any committee of Congress. No current members of Congress were even there. What was this odd event? A private panel discussion hosted by former Rep. Connie Mack IV (R-FL), along with veteran political fundraiser and operative, Matt Keelen. But unlike an actual congressional hearing, this private event was open only to invited guests (including congressional staffers), two Ukrainian reporters (from NewsOne), and one American reporter (me).
Handed out to attendees was a report titled “HONTAREVA: Combatting Corruption in the National Bank of Ukraine.” The report’s subject is Valeriya Hontareva, who resigned as governor from the NBU in April in the wake of death threats after she reformed the Ukraine’s banking system, including nationalizing the largest bank, PrivatBank. Hontareva is an ally of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Joining Mack and Keelen at the front of the room were two panelists: Sergiy Taruta, a billionaire member of the Ukrainian parliament who previously served as governor of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, and Oleksandr Zavadetskyi, who formerly worked at the NBU and claimed to have been fired after asking inappropriate questions regarding bank nationalization procedures while Hontareva was in charge.
The panel, as depicted by NewsOne (L) and as it appeared (R). (Photo credit: Screengrab, NewsOne)
The HONTAREVA report is the product of Sergiy Taruta, and he has been out flogging it for nearly a year. VoxCheck, a Ukrainian fact checking website, analyzed Taruta’s report in late 2016 and says of the report: “VoxCheck has checked most of the facts from the Taruta’s brochure and has discovered that the data, though mostly correct, are manipulated in almost all occasions.”
VoxCheck reports that the effect of Taruta’s “pamphlet” has been a “split [between] politicians and experts into two opposing camps, those who support Taruta and those who support Valeriya Hontareva.” (VoxCheck was similarly critical of Hontareva’s rebuttal.)
Much of the event was spent criticizing Hontareva. Mack wore his old congressional pin on his lapel throughout. He opened by musing about his time on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “It was always important for us as a committee and as a Congress to understand what’s happening around the world, and the topic of corruption would always come up,” he said.
Curiously, James Woolsey, the former Clinton Administration CIA director and former Trump campaign adviser, also attended and briefly spoke during the event.
Mack identified Woolsey as “a special guest with us today.” Woolsey got up from his seat in the sparse audience and recalled the time years ago when he helped negotiate a conventional arms treaty in Europe. He mentioned Ukraine in that context, but did not talk about corruption. Woolsey said in part that after the fall of the Berlin Wall, “For the next three to four years, the Russians were very easy to get along with. They were sweethearts.” The former CIA director went on to say, “I would love to see the international events work out in such a way that we end up being able to do two things. One, is to deal with the existence of corruption in the way that you referred to and that many people here are experts on. And the other is to keep Ukraine and other states in the region, such as Poland, from feeling that they are constantly under pressure from Russia to do the wrong thing. Resuscitate the days of friendly Russia in the early ‘90s.”
When asked as to why he hosted this event, former Congressman Mack told this reporter, “I represent a group that is interested in highlighting corruption, not just in Ukraine, but all over: from Central to South America, to Eastern Europe.” Mack acknowledged beforehand that the event was on the record, but when I asked Woolsey about his attendance after the event, he suggested that his remarks were off the record, despite the event being recorded and broadcast on Ukraine’s NewsOne.
Whether intentional or not, the nature and location of the event gave Ukrainian journalists the pretext to misleadingly suggest the event was action by the United States Congress.
In an interview after the event concluded, Taruta told NewsOne: “the fact that we’re here is exactly proof that the American government, the American Congress, are not indifferent to the corruption that is today at the highest echelons of power/government.”
Ukrainian officials derided Mack’s panel as fake news. Via a press release, the NBU’s website responded this way:
In an email, Dmytro Shymkiv, the deputy head of Presidential Administration of Ukraine, said: “The event on Capitol Hill about the National Bank of Ukraine was not a congressional hearing . . . The discussion was held without public scrutiny and was sponsored by a secret source. It just happened to be convened in a room on Capitol Hill by an American who was once, years ago, a congressman.” Mack, who is now a registered lobbyist, was last in Congress in 2013 after being defeated in a race for a U.S. Senate seat.
It is unclear whether the event was “sponsored” in the sense that money was exchanged for use of the room. Meeting rooms—like HC-8—are typically used in conjunction with official congressional activity, but current members of Congress are able to sponsor use of the such rooms for constituent groups, provided they attend. If they cannot attend, one of their aides is required to attend. The room reservation form from the speaker’s office, which controls reservations, warns congressional offices that these rooms cannot be used for: “Commercial, profit-making, fundraising, advertising, political or lobbying purposes, nor for entertaining tour groups.”
An inquiry to Speaker Ryan’s office about the use of the space was not returned.
Mack is registered to lobby on behalf of Interconnection Commerce S.A. to try to raise awareness of “corruption within the National Bank of Ukraine.” POLITICO Influence reports that “It’s unclear who Interconnection S.A. represents. The firm lists an address in the British Virgin Islands and shows up in the Panama Papers leaks but otherwise has no online presence.”
A Senate aide with knowledge of the event said, “It was a strange, strange event. Even by Ukrainian standards, that was an odd one. . . . I mean, why would a former CIA director be in the basement of the Capitol for a inter-oligarch dispute? [Former] CIA directors don’t just go to events and say, how much we could get along with the Russians. They don’t do that without a reason.”
Mack, in an email to invitees, pitched the event this way:
The email’s signature notes that Mack is retired from Congress and lists his lobbying firm. But then, you can see how Ukrainian media might get confused.
J.P. Carroll is a freelance national security and foreign affairs reporter and commentator based in Washington D.C. Follow him on Twitter @JPCarrollDC1.
