The Attorney General’s Office confirmed cooperation with the Soros Foundation, but didn’t say how much money she got from it.
The Attorney General’s Office acknowledged that it was cooperating with the George Soros Renaissance Foundation. However, the agency refused to name the employees who cooperated with the fund, and the funds spent by them Soros.
This is evidenced by the official responses of the Office of the Prosecutor General to two requests from former Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Volodymyr Bogatyr.
In response to the first inquiry on January 30, Ryaboshapka’s department informs that the work of prosecutors is paid for from the State Budget of Ukraine. At the same time, it is admitted that the Soros Foundation helped to organize foreign secondments for employees of the State Budget of Ukraine.
“According to the Department of International Legal Cooperation and Asset Recovery of the Office of the Prosecutor General, we inform that in the period 2014-2019 cooperation between the Prosecutor General’s Office and the International Renaissance Foundation was of expert and consultative nature. In addition, the fund contributed to the organization of official missions abroad of the prosecutors (the participants did not receive money). Employees of the Department responsible for organizational and protocol support of international cooperation activities in the bodies of the Procurator’s Office of Ukraine communicated with the Fund’s employees within their competence”, – the response from the Procurator’s Office states.
In the second reply, dated February 10, the Office writes that it did not keep records of the foreign missions of its employees.
“…Normative documents of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine…do not provide for the maintenance of a record of checks on certain issues. There is no record of foreign official missions by subjects that were involved in the organization of business trips of employees of the Procurator-General’s Office of Ukraine, and no specific sources of funding are kept, therefore it is impossible to provide information on the requested criteria, including a list of employees of the Procurator-General’s Office of Ukraine who were on foreign official missions, assistance in which was provided by the International Renaissance Foundation”, – the document says.
At the same time, the response indicated that the assistance concerned “the participation of prosecutors in activities aimed at gaining experience in areas that are relevant to the work of the agency. In particular, regarding the establishment of cooperation with the International Criminal Court”.
The Prosecutor’s Office added that prosecutors participated in activities to develop “their practical skills and experience in areas that are relevant to the work of the agency, in particular in establishing cooperation with the International Criminal Court.