Prosecutor releases recordings in which General Duka advises defendants to go into hiding

Recordings from conversations within Operation Carthage

During a session of the Higher Anti-Corruption Court dedicated to the selection of preventive measures, Prosecutor Mykola Karas played fragments of audio recordings in the courtroom. These materials were obtained during the investigation known as Operation Carthage. The tapes feature SBU Major General Serhiy Duka, who discusses with a counterpart a strategy of action to ensure that law enforcement agencies do not uncover the participants in the criminal scheme.

Instructions on evading the search

“Let them change addresses, go to apartments and act like partisans,” was heard aloud from the recording read out by the prosecution representative. The prosecutor emphasised that during these conversations, the Major General did not clarify to Andriy Osipov which specific “phones” were being discussed or what exactly the latter had in mind. According to Karas, long-standing friendly relations existed between Duka and Osipov, who appears on the tapes under the nickname “Criminal”.

The prosecution stressed that in one of the recorded conversations, Duka directly explains to Osipov what measures need to be taken to avoid criminal prosecution.

Link to meetings of law enforcement leadership

According to the prosecutor, Osipov was aware of the holding of meetings of law enforcement heads and knew exactly who was participating in them. It was established that Duka's car entered the territory of the Office of the Prosecutor General on the very day one of such meetings was held.

At that time, state leadership called for intensifying the fight against illegal call centres. Against this backdrop, as Karas noted, the case defendants discussed methods that would prevent the exposure of their activities.

Foreign citizens in call centres

Citizens of Lithuania, Kazakhstan, the Czech Republic, Moldova and Hungary worked in the illegal call centres. These individuals resided in Ukraine on the basis of residence permits. The prosecutor added that these documents were either cancelled or extended.