A high-ranking Ukrainian cybersecurity official was detained on Monday on suspicion of being involved in embezzlement, according to Ukraine’s anti-corruption court.
Viktor Zhora, the former deputy head of Ukraine’s State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection (SSSCIP), who was fired from his post last week, will be held in pre-trial detention for two months on $276,000 bail.
According to Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency (NABU), Zhora and five other suspects embezzled 1.72m dollars through procurement classification fraud between 2020 and 2022. Zhora faces charges of facilitating a corruption scheme related to the purchase of software for the SSSCIP.
Last week, during a preliminary court hearing, investigators said that the suspects’ alleged correspondence on the messenger Threema, a Swiss messaging service used by the military in Switzerland and government officials in various other countries, including Ukraine, had been found on Zhora’s phone.
On Friday, one of the suspects, former SSSCIP head Yurii Shchyhol, was released from custody on $700,000 bail. He must wear an electronic bracelet, must surrender his passport for international travel and is not allowed to communicate with witnesses and other suspects.
The suspects communicated in coded language and used pseudonyms. For example, they called Koval “Yoda”, SSSCIP “kolkhoz”, and Shchyhol – “Bird”.
As a result of the information obtained, the investigators found out that the software was developed by the US technology company EPAM Systems. The acquisition process was organised by Ukrainian businessman Roman Koval, who is believed to have been at the head of this criminal scheme.
Koval is a former business partner of Zhora. The Ukrainian anti-corruption agency alleges that Koval used his connections in the SSSCIP to appoint a “loyal person” to the position of the agency’s deputy head in charge of procurement.
Zhora has represented Ukraine at major conferences in Washington and European capitals and at hacker gatherings including BlackHat. Earlier this month, Zhora keynoted the Cyberwarcon cybersecurity conference outside Washington.
