The parliament voted on May 8 to summon the head of the Bureau of Economic Security in connection to recent searches at a Kyiv-based business association and alleged pressure on the business sector, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said.
CEO Club Ukraine said on May 6 that last month, the bureau's officials searched the association's premises.
Although the officers found nothing out of order, anonymous Telegram channels began spreading false claims that the searches uncovered illicit establishments operating under the guise of the CEO Club, its founder said.
The bureau announced on April 30 that it had conducted searches at several addresses in Kyiv, uncovering an illegal casino and a fraudulent call center without specifying their exact location.
Serhii Haydaichuk, the association's founder and president, presented this as part of a smear campaign against the CEO Club in retaliation for its past criticism of the bureau.
The bureau was established in 2021 as the key agency for combatting economic crimes. Several media outlets and civil society organizations have said since then that the body fell under the unofficial control of Oleh Tatarov, a deputy head of the Presidential Office.
On April 11, the parliament passed in the first reading a bill on reforming the bureau to meet the requirements of domestic actors and international partners.
Ukrainian business leaders have repeatedly complained of growing pressure from state authorities, most notably after the surprise detention of investment banker Ihor Mazepa in January.
Yaroslav Zhelezniak
(Updated: )
