Law enforcers expose massive embezzlement scheme in Ukraine Army supplies
This was reported by the Prosecutor General's Office, Ukrinform saw.
"Under the procedural leadership of specialized prosecutors' offices in the field of defense, the Prosecutor General's Office along with the SBI, SBU, NPU, DSI, and SEB completed a large-scale special operation to expose organizers and participants of criminal schemes involving embezzlement of budget funds allocated for Ukraine’s defense. The total amount of budget losses stands at over UAH 1.5 billion," the statement reads.
According to the inquiry, employees Ministry of Defense, military units, a territorial military draft office, regional military administrations and city councils, as well as chiefs of companies in a number of regions across Ukraine, were involved in the embezzlement scheme.
Twenty-eight suspects, including nine members of organized criminal groups, have been formally charged.
Among the suspects are the head of an MoD department, chief of the draft office for Donetsk region, several employees of military units in Donetsk, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, and Cherkasy regions, five employees of city councils in Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as well as representatives from several companies.
The suspects are accused of embezzlement and misappropriation of budget funds while procuring goods at inflated prices and overestimation of the cost of services, improper performance of duties, negligence in accepting poor-quality uniform for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, forgery and use of forged documents.
One of the suspects, chief of the MoD department, was charged with obstructing the legitimate operations of the Armed Forces and other military formations. Being aware of the existence of a government contract, he entered into an additional agreement and illegitimately transferred state budget funds to a certain enterprise.
As part of the probe, law enforcers conducted more than 65 searches throughout Ukraine.
The PGO notes that this is already the second such large-scale special operation by law enforcement to expose criminal rings embezzling budget funds allocated for the Armed Forces.
As Ukrinform reported, in July, during a joint raid as part of an investigation into the embezzlement of UAH 138 million allocated for the Army, law enforcement conducted 70 searches and pressed charges against 30 officials.