Who “leaked” Nabu cases? International audit showed failures in internal control and in the influence of the Uhlava -case

In May 2025, the first international test of NABU's effectiveness was published in ten years. The report of the independent auditing committee recorded systemic problems in the work of the office: ineffective activities of the internal control department (ICD), a lack of accountability and excessive influence of the NABU director Semen Kryvonos on the course of internal investigations,, Unnight Reports with reference to the document.

ICD: 10 years – no judgment

During the entire existence of NABU, internal control did not bring a single case to a judgment about information leakage that was committed by employees of the office. Several internal examinations were opened in 2023-2024, but none of them once led to the announcement of the suspicion. How many criminal matters were at risk due to these leaks and which losses for the state – the examiners do not indicate. At the same time, they emphasize that the department performs both prevention and examination functions, which causes an obvious conflict of interest. In addition, the decision to start or terminate an official investigation is carried out personally by the NABU director Semen Kryvonos.

Kryvonos has stopped the examination and is silent about the Uglava case

In at least one case, Kryvonos canceled the internal examination and explained it through the fact that the NABU representatives allegedly encouraged the detective to take part in a podcast that violated the innocence of the accused. The report also mentioned the scandalous leak of 2024, which refers to the former first deputy director of the office, Gizo Uglava. The head of the SAPO obliged the internal control department to examine this case, although according to the examiners, the examination should not be carried out by the department, but by a separate examination team. Kryvonos avoids public comments on the Uglava case and instead accuses lawyers, courts, police, SBU, state register – all except NABU itself.

Kyiv lawyers under the direction of Dmytro Borzykh, which are described as the “most influential in the country”, “lawyers with law enforcement skills”, “lawyers with their own security service” in the office – and those who have supposedly ruined all important cases of NABU. Kryvonos even falls back on exclusive interviews on the topic of her activities. This is about the so-called “Nabugate” case, in which NABU detectives in the office of these lawyers, including the negotiating space, in which defense strategies were discussed by suspects in NABU cases.

These lawyers specialized exclusively in NABU cases and previously had high -ranking positions in the main office of the military public prosecutor. The NABU accuses the lawyers to access the closed court register and explained that she “spied on” about the appearance of search command for her clients and warned them about it. When the detectives came to the search queries, everything was already “clean”. Instead, the lawyers deny the hypotheses of the NABU and explain that search processes are a predictable examination campaign that can be predicted by indirect evidence, in particular with considerable experience. Let us make it clear that these former prosecutors, now lawyers, top-class anti-corruption cases, including ex-Minister Oleksandr Klymenko, which was reasonably suspected of causing losses of 100 billion UAH amount. After the cases were transferred to NABU and SAPO, a number of similar cases were closed for formal reasons and the arrested assets were not blocked – without compensation for the state. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Klymenko later robbed his citizenship.

Hearing capital of lawyers and the limits of Nabu's powers

After the scandal with listening to lawyers, the SBI opened a criminal investigation against NABU detectives -it is about violating a privilege of the lawyer client. According to experts, this case proves the risk of granting the autonomous NABU law on a listening: In the event of legalization, the extent of violations will only increase – including the international standards and conventions that reject the status of Ukraine as the rule of law of the rule of law.

Uglava case: silence and “suspended” examination

The former first deputy director Gizo Uglava, the actual director NABU, who was publicly accused in 2024, has had information about future searches in cases with billions of losses, was rejected without suspicion. The examination is not completed.

According to journalists, Uglava is certainly still freely moving in the city, visits Elite facilities and appears at closed events in the society of criminal authorities. There is no public report on the results of the investigation. Uglava had access to all cases, meetings and top examination plans. The extent of possible leaks is unknown and Nabu hides this information.

Symbolic control: no inspections, no results

The examinations of the examiners: The internal control department carries out almost no real monitoring of the lifestyle of NABU employees. Only 6 inspections were carried out in 2023 (1 case was 1 – in official investigations) in 2024 – 10 inspections, only three of which ended with official investigations. The KPI of the activity of the department is missing either or formally. A characteristic detail is Kryvonos' publicly ignored the scandal with the crypto letters from detective in which millions of sums are involved. No answer from the lead.

“A former NABU employee informed the Commission that his supervisor said:” It is better for her to complain less about internal control, “says the report (p. 37).

Implementation of independence

The exam included the period from March 2023 to November 2024 – the time to lead the Semen Kryvonos office. Despite the limited time, the examiners recorded persistent trends: low efficiency, lack of accountability and the desire to separate from other law enforcement authorities. The formal evaluation is “moderately effective”, but is only slightly above the minimum on the scale, which enables the question of the office of the director's official non -compliance.

context

The legally presented external independent assessment by NABU was carried out for the first time in 10 years. The Commission included international anti-corruption experts appointed by the Cabinet of the Minister of Ukraine: Martin Arpo, Robert Westbrooks and Hermione Teresa Cronier. Full analysis – under the link: