By Denys Bigus

Serhiy Kurchenko, the absconded 28-year-old who is accused of embezzlement and theft of nearly a billion dollars in public money, had a lot of lawyers.

One hundred and two, to be exact.

At the end of March, the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, detained one of them, along with a former close business associate of Kurchenko’s.

“Both of the detained citizens are key members of the criminal group of Kurchenko and are suspected of massive theft of Ukraine’s state budget,” says the announcement on the SBU website. “As part of criminal proceedings launched under articles of (misappropriation, embezzlement and creation of criminal organization) a joint investigative team of Ukraine’s Security Service and the Prosecutor General conducted searches and seized documents proving that the detainees have been implicated in criminal financial schemes.”

The two were arrested and taken to the SBU's pre-trial detention center.

On April 24, Bugai was released, although he remains under house arrest while the investigation proceeds; Kashkin remains in custody.

Bugai has worked closely with Kurchenko since 2013, overseeing business deals for the most controversial businessman of Viktor Yanukovych's presidency.  Kurchenko fled Ukraine leaving most of his best assets in the hands of a Russian state-owned bank through what may have been a strategic default of the company’s loans.

Bugai, meanwhile, remains a suspect but has not been charged with wrongdoing. He also remains a member of the Justice Ministry's working group on legal reform, president of the Ukrainian Bar Association and a co-owner of the law firm Vashchenko, Bugai and Partners.  Under the new Ukrainian criminal code, suspects are charged only when the investigation has concluded and the case is sent to court.

Bugai said his detention resulted from a "premature conclusion of the investigators … based on unverified information." He says he simply provided standard legal advice and assistance to Kurchenko and had nothing to do with any money allegedly missing from the budget.

According to shredded documents found in Kurchenko's office and restored by the YanukovychLeaks project, 70 of Kurchenko’s army of 102 lawyers were employed by VETEK’s legal department.

The documents indicate at least some of those lawyers understood that their role was to legitimize an illegal business.

One document clearly recorded a “rehearsal of questioning” with one of the lawyers. The lawyers may be valuable witnesses in untangling the alleged crimes connected to Kurchenko. But so far investigators at the general prosecutor's office have not sought information from the documents.

Lawyers, accountants, company registration agents and others are often members of what OCCRP has dubbed the “criminal services industry,” the legitimate professionals who willingly or unwillingly aid corrupt officials and organized crime figures in the sometimes complex process of stealing and hiding assets.

The documents found in VETEK's legal department were some of the least damaged, and offer a glimpse into the staffing schedule and job descriptions of the department's employees. The monthly budgets break down the staffing by legal group.

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