WOW.
Viktor Mykolayovych Shokin (
Ukrainian: Віктор Миколайович Шокін) is a former
Prosecutor General of Ukraine. Having previously worked as an investigator for the Prosecutor General Office, he served as Prosecutor General for one year between 2015 and 2016.
Amid domestic and international pressure, he was removed from office by the
Ukrainian Parliament in March 2016, a move welcomed by the
European Union, the
United States, the
International Monetary Fund, and the
World Bank.
Shokin's removal played a central role in the
Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory as it was falsely claimed that then U.S. Vice President
Joe Biden sought to thwart an investigation into
Burisma, a company tied to his son,
Hunter Biden, but
Obama administration officials, European diplomats, and
anti-corruption advocates in Ukraine say Shokin was removed because he failed to pursue Ukrainian politicians for corruption, and that they intervened before Biden did.
In 2012, the Ukrainian prosecutor general
Viktor Pshonka began investigating
Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of the natural gas company
Burisma Holdings, over allegations of
money laundering,
tax evasion, and corruption during 2010–2012.
In 2015, Shokin became the prosecutor general, inheriting the investigation. The
Obama administration and other governments and
non-governmental organizations soon became concerned that Shokin was not adequately pursuing corruption in Ukraine, was protecting the political elite, and was regarded as "an obstacle to anti-corruption efforts".
Among other issues, he was slow-walking the investigation into Zlochevsky and Burisma and, according to Zlochevsky's allies, using the threat of prosecution to try to solicit bribes from Mr. Zlochevsky and his team – to the extent that Obama officials were considering launching their own criminal investigation into the company for possible money laundering.
While visiting Kyiv in December 2015, then-U.S. Vice President
Joe Biden warned Ukrainian President
Petro Poroshenko that, if he did not fire Shokin, the Obama administration was prepared to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees. Biden later said: "I looked at them and said, 'I'm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money.' [...] He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time." Whether or not Shokin's successor was "solid" was never confirmed.
Joe Biden's son,
Hunter Biden, joined the board of directors of Burisma Holdings in 2014.
So..............Biden and others were withholding $$$, for NOT investigating corruption, and teabaggers are miffed?
Figures.