Law enforcement officers have exposed former employees of “Ukroboronprom” for embezzling 107.2 million hryvnias from the state budget. They face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.
This was reported by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU).
These are former officials of state enterprises and the owner of a private company. According to the investigation, the four defendants, who are now hiding abroad, used a foreign company for illegal transactions.
Officials signed contracts with this company, claiming that it was helping Ukrainian companies sell weapons abroad. In reality, all the work was done by a Ukrainian defense company, and the foreign company existed only on paper.
State money was transferred to this firm for fictitious services during 2016-2019. The funds were withdrawn through shell companies and divided among the participants in the scheme. The participants were notified in absentia of suspicions under the following articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
- Part 3 of Article 28, Part 5 of Article 191 (embezzlement, embezzlement of property or taking possession of it through abuse of official position, committed by an organized group);
- Part 3 of Article 209 (legalization (laundering) of property obtained by criminal means committed by an organized group);
- Part 3 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 366 (official forgery of documents committed by an organized group).
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