The chief of Ukraine’s Supreme Court was formally arrested on Thursday, as prosecutors indicated in a second day of hearings that a high-level corruption case was expanding to include a wider circle of judges.
Prosecutors also accused a lawyer of acting as an intermediary in paying a bribe to the chief justice, and said that at least three other judges of the court had been found holding thousands of dollars in currency marked by investigators.
The chief justice, Vsevolod Knyazev, was apprehended just after midnight Tuesday by officers of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, who searched his home and office in simultaneous raids and said they found large sums of U.S. currency. He was ordered to be detained for 60 days, with bail set at $2.9 million, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office said late Thursday.
Mr. Knyazev has been charged with graft in a public office, accused of accepting a bribe of $1.8 million to influence a case in favor of a Ukrainian oligarch, Kostyantyn Zhevago. A prosecutor said Mr. Knyazev had sent a message to the lawyer in early May to split the money into at least 14 separate bags, and later sent a message saying he had passed the money to other judges.
The Anti-Corruption Court’s prosecutor, Oleksandr Omelchenko, told the court that officers raided Mr. Knyazev’s home half an hour after a second tranche was handed over.
Oleh Horestkyi, the lawyer accused of acting for the oligarch, was apprehended with Mr. Knyazev on Tuesday. He was detained for 60 days by the court, the special anti-corruption prosecutor said in a statement.
The case has shocked and dismayed members of Ukraine’s judiciary. In interviews, two Supreme Court judges lamented the damage to the reputation of the court and the judiciary. They said they worked through the night and most of Tuesday to prepare a ballot in which 140 of the 142 Supreme Court judges voted to remove Mr. Knyazev from his post. The two judges spoke on condition of anonymity, because of their position as members of the court.
Oleksandr Chubko contributed reporting.
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