By James Bradley and Flor Blanco, Photo by Donald Tong
MARCH 20, 2025, UKRAINE—After nearly three years, Oleg Kulinich sits in a Ukrainian prison as a suspect of treason against the state of Ukraine. Yet, no formal charges against Kulinich were made, according to his attorney Andriy Nahod. How can this this once anti-corruption agent, who worked closely with the first US Trump administration to protect the US taxpayer from misuse of funds, have fallen so deeply into one of most infamous depths of corruption? Could Kulinich be a pawn of the power shift that occurred in the US in 2021, that is quickly shifting again?
Kulinich’s Work in 2018-2019 Anti-Corruption Effort
While working closely with US officials during President Trump’s first term, Kulinich helped uncover financial corruption in Ukraine dating back to 2014, under the Yanukovych government. Kulinich’s investigations involved cases against high-ranking officials of the Yanukovych government who participated in the 2014 events in Donbas and the annexation of Crimea that same year. Statements gathered during Kulinich’s investigative tenure included the foundations of the defunct USAID funding scheme in Ukraine, which according to the statements was purposely created with embedded loopholes in accounting and traceability.
Oddly, the drafting of the USAID scheme coincided with three pivotal movements in Ukraine at the time. First, the influence of Soros backed International Renaissance Foundation, funded by the Open Society became a prominent force. The movement helped fuel the 2014 overthrow of then Ukrainian President Yanukovich. The forced ousting of Yanukovich led to the end of his proclamation that made Ukraine a neutral country.
As result in 2014, Ukraine returned to its efforts of meeting the stringent requirements to join NATO. Among the conditions was to reach a specific economic and trade status. According to sworn statements collected during Kulinich’s investigations, the tenets were so challenging because of the corruption and the poor credit status of Ukraine in 2014, that the USAID loan scheme was developed to present the “illusion” of meeting those goals.
What Else Does Kulinich Know?
Kulinich’s investigative work followed the maturing embezzlement ruse of US foreign aid funds from 2014 onward, reaching into the depths of involvement of US organizations and public officials, according to sworn statements. Implications of potential involvement of Hunter Biden were mentioned. Among the information shared, were intentional actions to obfuscate these findings, even blocking them from reaching the desk of then President Trump. The contentious scuffle surrounding Trump’s perfect phone call with Zelenskyy in 2019 and Trump’s first impeachment in 2020, were seemingly all products of this successful ruse, based on Kulinich’s assessment given to Uncensored Beat.
Such information could have saved then President Trump from impeachment. And, it could have also saved the country from spending billions during the Biden administration. Do the people of the US have the right to know what Kulinich knows?
Efforts to Shut Down the Release of Information
Kulinich’s focus shifted quickly with his assignment as head of the Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) in the Crimea region in 2020. One month later in November 2020, Zelenskyy quickly shut down all anti-corruption investigations shortly after the announcement of Biden’s election victory in the US. Nearly a year-and-half later in July 2022, Kulinich is arrested for suspicion of treason.
Kulinich’s lawyer, Andriy Nahod, states that the accusations surrounding Kulinich’s arrest for treason fall short based on statements and official records proving otherwise. Yet, after three years since Kulinich’s imprisonment Ukraine has not allowed the evidence to be presented in court. Additionally, most of the hearings with Kulinich remain closed to the public, disabling the ability for the media to interpret the proceedings.
According to Kulinich’s lawyer Andriy Nahod, “From the very beginning of the investigation into the case against Kulinich, gross violations of the law, Kulinich’s rights and freedoms were evident. High-ranking officials of the special services and law enforcement agencies publicly accused Kulinich of being a traitor and guilty of assisting Russian troops in a rapid offensive in southern Ukraine in February and March 2022.”
Kulinich claims that he received threats while assigned to battle corruption. Could it be that his work with uncovering such depths of financial corruption involving both Ukrainian and US officials and organizations played a role in initiating criminal proceedings against him under the egregious crime of treason?
As DOGE continues to uncover the preposterous projects funded by USAID, information gathered during Kulinich’s investigative work presented darker purposes of funds which included both bribery and persecution of public officers and servants.
The Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022 was passed by Congress shortly after the Russian invasion in February of that year, and two months prior Kulinich’s arrest. The act contained a clause under the International Security Assistance section of the bill that allocated funds from the US Department of State for International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement, which is a general funding category of USAID funds per the GAO 2024 audit. The details of that section of the bill describe disbursing US funds “to document and collect evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Government of the Russian Federation in Ukraine.” Is it possible that these funds could have been used to support the arrest of Kulinich for treason–an arrest that his lawyer claims was unwarranted?
Next… Is Kulinich a victim of judicial corruption?