Ukraine Reopens Corruption Case Against Joe Biden-Linked Company

Ukrainian prosecutor general is reviewing Trump's concerns about Hunter Biden's firm

© press Ukraine is reopening the corruption case against the company Joe Biden's son, Hunter, was a board member of

Ukraine's new Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka has announced he is reopening the corruption cases into Joe Biden's son, Hunter's company after the original investigation was shut down by the previous Ukrainian administration under suspicious circumstances.

Ryaboshapka's office revealed on Friday that his team is reviewing several cases related to the owner of a gas company where Hunter Biden sat on the board.

The move is part of a major review of all the criminal cases closed by his predecessors and comes just one day after President Donald Trump called on Ukraine to investigate Biden family dealings.

Ryaboshapka is reviewing the criminal corruption cases against energy company Burisma Holdings, where Hunter Biden sat on the board of directors.

Despite no experience or expertise in the field Hunter Biden was reportedly "compensated" $50,000 a month at Burisma, while his father was serving as US vice president.

While in office, Biden's role as VP put him in charge of overseas operations in Ukraine and China - two countries where his son had lucrative business contracts.

© press Ukraine's new Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka is reopening the corruption cases against Hunter Biden's company

Ukraine's former chief prosecutor Viktor Shokin was fired whilst he was investigating Burisma Holdings.

Joe Biden has since boasted that he forced the Ukrainian government to fire Shokin by threatening to withhold $1 billion in US military aid, claiming he did so because the prosector was "corrupt."

According to bombshell documents handed over to Congress by the State Department’s inspector general this week, however, Skokin says he was ordered to back off his investigations in Burisma.

The documents include transcripts from a private interview earlier this year between President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Shokin.

According to details of that interview, revealed in a copy of Giuliani’s notes from his January 2019 interview with Shokin that were obtained by Fox News, Shokin claims that his “investigations stopped out of fear of the United States.”

MUST WATCH: Here's Joe Biden in 2018 bragging about using his power to hold up $1 BILLION in U.S. loans unless Ukraine fired the prosecutor investigating Burisma – a corrupt Ukrainian oil company paying his son $50,000 a month.



Biden needs to explain his conflict of interest! pic.twitter.com/bDhaKjFNZN — Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) September 25, 2019

Trump had pressed for such a review in a phone call with Ukraine’s new leader, a “favor” that now has led the U.S. Congress to begin an impeachment inquiry.

Ruslan Ryaboshapka’s statement shows that Kyiv is under an increasing pressure to react to Trump’s overtures, analysts say.

Ryaboshapka told reporters in Kyiv that prosecutors are “auditing” all the cases that were closed or dismissed by former prosecutors, including several related to Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of the gas company Burisma that hired Hunter Biden in 2014, at the same time his father was leading the Obama administration’s diplomatic dealings with Kyiv.

Though the timing raised concerns among anti-corruption advocates, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either the former vice president or his son.

“We are now reviewing all the cases that were closed or split into several parts or were investigated before, in order to be able to rule to reverse those cases where illegal procedural steps were taken,” Ryaboshapka said.

Asked if the prosecutors had evidence of any wrongdoing on Hunter Biden’s part, Ryaboshapka said: “I have no such information.”

On a trip in the city of Zhytomyr, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, when asked by The Associated Press about Trump’s comment that the U.S. has an “absolute right” to ask foreign leaders to investigate corruption cases, Zelenskiy said that Ukraine is “open” and that all the cases under investigation are “transparent.”

Ryaboshapka and Zelenskiy’s remarks came a day after House investigators released a cache of text messages provided by Kurt Volker, the former special U.S. envoy to Ukraine who stepped down amid the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

The fired Ukrainian prosecutor, at the center of the #Ukraine corruption scandal, says he was ordered to stop investigating #JoeBiden's son #HunterBiden's company, according to bombshell documents handed to Congress by the State Department’s IG.

READ MORE: https://t.co/o3oUDIThnI — Neon Nettle (@NeonNettle) October 3, 2019

Volker in the messages encouraged Zelenskiy’s aide to conduct an investigation linked to Biden’s family in return for a high-profile visit to Washington with President Donald Trump.

The Prosecutor General’s Office in a statement issued after Ryaboshapka’s briefing said that among the cases they are reviewing, there are 15 where Burisma’s owner Zlochevsky is mentioned.

None of the Zlochevsky-related cases has been revived yet, they said.

They did not specify how many, if any, were related to Hunter Biden’s work at Burisma.

Ryaboshapka was mentioned in the July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, who told Trump that Ryaboshapka was “his man” and that he would resume investigations into Burisma.

The prosecutor general insisted on Friday that he did not feel any pressure over the Burisma case.

“Not a single foreign or Ukrainian official or politician has called me or tried to influence my decisions regarding specific criminal cases,” he said.

© press Trump is accusing Joe Biden of corruption over the Ukraine allegations

A whistleblower last month claimed that Trump in a phone call asked Zelenskiy to resume the probe into Joe Biden and his son.

The July 25 call has since triggered an impeachment inquiry against Trump.

Democrats claim Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Biden's family by threatening to withhold US aid.

Yet the transcript from the calls shows no pressure from the president, nor was US aid even mentioned.

Analysts in Kyiv saw Ryaboshapka and Zelenskiy’s remarks as a sign that the Ukrainian government is trying to stay in Trump’s good graces, but not trying to dig up the dirt on his Democratic rival.

“Ryaboshapka’s statements mean that the (criminal) cases are allegedly being investigated and Kyiv is open for cooperation with U.S. counterparts but we shouldn’t expect any tangible results of the probe until after the election in the U.S.,” said Volodymyr Fesenko of the Penta Center think tank in Kyiv.

“Zelenskiy doesn’t want to be involved in the U.S. political battles but he’s already in the game and has to be flexible.”