Law enforcement officers, together with “Ukrzaliznytsia”, have uncovered a criminal scheme to extort money from Kyiv conductors and a "shadow cash register" from international routes. The scheme lasted for years and involved dozens of people.
This is reported by the National Police and “Ukrzaliznytsia".
According to the investigation, the scheme was organized by the head of one of the trade unions. He assembled a team of managers and officials of the Kyiv-Passenger station division, which he previously headed. Managers introduced several regulations. In particular, they took advantage of the high demand for tickets to Warsaw, Budapest, Vienna, Przemyśl, Chelm, Chisinau, etc.
"From each flight, the train manager had to enter the "cash register" — from 2 000 hryvnias from the route across Ukraine and €2 000-5 000 from the most popular foreign connections. In just six months of 2024, JSC "Ukrzaliznytsia" did not receive more than 70 million hryvnias under the passenger transportation scheme, which "settled" in the pockets of criminals," law enforcement officers say.
The head of the trade union personally approved candidates for the positions of train chiefs and conductors, explained the "rules" to them and extended employment contracts. Officials had to join the trade union and pay monthly dues. And this is more than 350 thousand hryvnias from all its members. If a person did not agree to these conditions, he was pressured, not appointed to a position or transferred to another.
Conductors sold seats to passengers in service compartments, which are not sold in the system of free ticket sales, for €300-500, without issuing receipts. There are usually 4-6 such seats in carriages.
Also, those involved bought tickets for free seats before the flight date and sold them at prices two or three times higher than the official price. In these tickets, the passenger data did not correspond to those specified in the form of the travel document and in the ticketing system. They were also not issued receipts.
The received money was not entered in the financial statements, it was distributed among all participants of the scheme. The leader — the head of the trade union — received the most. The police and “Ukrzaliznytsia” conducted a special operation to detain him.
Currently, ten members of the criminal organization have been notified of their suspicions:
- in the creation, management of a criminal organization and participation in it;
- in abuse of power or official position.
Law enforcement officers conducted more than 80 searches and seized almost 5 000 000 hryvnias in national and foreign currency, cars, drafts, documents, phones, etc. Investigative actions are ongoing regarding the announcement of suspicions to other members of the group. Precautionary measures are chosen for suspects.
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