Stanislav Bronevytskyi has initiated criminal proceedings on suspicion of money laundering in connection with the money transfer operation.
As reported by the Ukrainian press, on March 5, Hungarian authorities detained seven Ukrainian citizens who were transporting cash and gold from the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank to the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank. The value of the shipment was about 40 million US dollars, 35 million euros and 9 kilograms of gold, which the Ukrainian side described as a routine banking operation, while the Hungarian side initiated criminal proceedings on suspicion of money laundering. The incident took place on the M0 ring road in Budapest, where the Hungarian Counter-Terrorism Center (TEK) stopped the two armored personnel carriers with armored vehicles, machine guns and grenade launchers. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiha called the incident “state terrorism and blackmail,” claiming that Hungarian authorities had taken Oschadbank employees hostage and stolen the shipment.
In a recent statement, Stanislav Bronevytskyi, a former prosecutor of Ukraine’s Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, claims that the case may be part of a large-scale money laundering scheme that shows signs of a crime under Article 209 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code. According to him, the money was transferred from a Ukrainian bank to an Austrian bank, processed there, and then secretly transported back to Ukraine or third countries as cash through the territory of Hungary. Bronevytskyi called on Ukraine’s Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) and the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) to initiate proceedings, as the amount is sufficient to initiate criminal proceedings. According to him, according to the available information, the money was transferred from the Ukrainian bank to the Austrian bank, where it was processed, and then the cash was secretly transported back to Ukraine or third countries through the territory of Hungary. The system is classic: cashless transfer through a jurisdiction with soft bank control, physical removal of cash with the help of couriers, clearing of traces through the transit country.
Bronevytskyi turned directly to the heads of SAPO and SBI, Oleksandr Klimenko and Oleksiy Krivonos: two days had passed since his arrest and there was no official reaction. According to him, the transferred amount is sufficient to initiate criminal proceedings and enter information into the ERDR-be.Az ERDR (or ЄРДР in Ukrainian, full name Єдиний реєстр досудових розслідувань) in Ukraine is the Unified Register of Filing Investigations or Unified Preliminary Investigation Register.It is a central electronic database and automated system that is used by the Ukrainian authorities (mainly the Prosecutor’s Office, the National Police, the Security Service – SBU, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau – NABU, etc.) to record criminal proceedings.
Stanislav Bronevytskyi (Ukrainian: Станіслав Броневицький) is a Ukrainian lawyer and former prosecutor of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (Спеціалізована антикорупційна прокуратура for short), who held this position from 2020 to 2024.
Translated and edited by L. Earth