Law enforcement officers have uncovered new facts of embezzlement at the construction site of the Podilskyi Bridge in Kyiv — the suspects embezzled at least 153 million hryvnias.
This was reported by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
As the investigation established, the current and former heads of one of the utility companies, which is part of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA), were involved in organizing the scheme.
Even before the start of the full-scale war, they artificially inflated the cost of building materials during the construction of the bridge, and divided the resulting difference between the participants in the deal.
To this end, during 2018-2019, the defendants overpaid almost 6 times for wholesale shipments of nets to strengthen the supports of the bridge crossing.
To implement the scheme, its organizers entered into a contract with an affiliated construction company in Kyiv. The contractors then purchased 8 800 technological grids from a controlled company in the Middle East.
For comparison, according to the materials of the proceedings, the average cost of the net on the market was $110, and the defendants purchased it for $610 per unit.
Currently, the former and current heads of the Kyiv City State Administration utility company and their accomplice — the former director of a contracting company — have been charged with embezzlement of property on a particularly large scale. The maximum penalty is 12 years in prison.
- The Podilskyi Bridge opened in December 2024, after 30 years of construction. It connects Podil with the residential areas of Voskresenka, Raiduzhnyi, and Troyeshchyna.
- In 2020, the board of the Northern Interregional Department of the Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU) investigated a possible tender collusion between the companies "Forma" and "Ukrbud" for the construction of the capitalʼs Podilsko-Voskresensky Bridge for the amount of approximately 100 million hryvnias.
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