The court seized $1.5 million of crypto-assets of ex-head of the State Special Communications Service Yury Shchyhol

The higher anti-corruption court seized $1.5 million worth of crypto-assets of ex-head of the State Intelligence Service Yury Shchyhol, who is accused of embezzling state funds.

NABU writes about this.

The court seized Tether USDT cryptocurrency in the amount of 1.2 million units ($1.2 million at the time of the disclosure), TRX in the amount of 331 units ($35) and 6.9 bitcoins ($275 thousand).

The case of Shchyhol

On November 20, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dismissed Shchyhol from the position of head of the State Special Service. Viktor Zhora, his deputy in charge of digital development, digital transformations and digitalization, also lost his position.

On the same day, SAPO and NABU informed Shchyhol and his deputy that they were suspected of embezzling over 62 million hryvnias of state funds. In total, six people are involved in the scheme. We are talking about the purchase of software for State Special Communications in 2021-2022. Prosecutors claim that the programs were purchased at inflated prices, and the difference was transferred to the accounts of controlled companies abroad to be legalized and divided among themselves. Shchyhol himself is confident that he will be able to prove his innocence and emphasizes that the purchases were made according to the law.

• On November 23, Yury Shchyhol was arrested with the right to post a bail of 25 million hryvnias, and his deputy Viktor Zhora was sent to the pretrial detention center after him.