Family pays $330,000 to free senior police officer in Carthage case
Volodymyr Tsenov was released after his father and an associate posted bail following his arrest for accepting bribes to protect illegal businesses.
By Yasmin Nasser ·
Ukrainian law enforcement officials are under scrutiny after a senior police executive was released from custody on bail. Volodymyr Tsenov, the First Deputy Head of the National Police's Strategic Investigations Department, had been held by the High Anti-Corruption Court since November 5.
The court confirmed that bail of 15 million hryvnia, roughly 330,000 US dollars, was paid for Tsenov. A representative for the court press service verified the payment to Ukrainska Pravda. Law enforcement sources identified two individuals who provided the funds: Mykola Tsenov and a person identified as T. Lysakova.
Investigative outlet Slidstvo.Info notes that Mykola Tsenov is Volodymyr's father. The elder Tsenov previously served as first deputy head of the Interior Ministry's Main Directorate for Combating Organised Crime. He also co-founded an NGO called Citizens of Ukraine Against Organised Crime, which stopped operating in 2017.
Tsenov is one of five suspects in what prosecutors call the Carthage case. Detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine served suspicion notices to a criminal group led by Andrii Osipov. The group allegedly used bribes to senior officials to shield illicit operations from interference.
The investigation indicates that these payments allowed scam call centers, drug trafficking networks, counterfeit cigarette manufacturers, and foreign currency forgers to continue their work. The suspects include Osipov, Serhii Duka, a senior Security Service official, and Oleksandr Demianchuk, a deputy head of a criminal investigation division in Kyiv Oblast.
Investigators also found that members of the group engaged in assaults and abductions to further their interests. Tsenov's release follows a rapid sequence of events that began on November 4, when searches were conducted at the offices of the Security Service and the police.
The High Anti-Corruption Court remanded Tsenov in custody with the option of bail on November 5. The payment of the full bail amount occurred shortly after that ruling.
