The High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) handed over $5 million seized in the case of the ex-minister of agrarian policy to the Main Directorate of Intelligence.
This was reported by the press service of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU).
"The board of judges of the HACC considered and granted the request of the prosecutor to remove the seizure of these funds, and obliged NABU to direct these funds to strengthen the stateʼs defense capabilities," the message reads.
The former minister is suspected of embezzling the funds of the Agrarian Fund of Ukraine, which were allocated for the purchase of granulated sugar. In general, during the first half of the current year, almost UAH 460 million (pledges and seized assets in the cases of NABU and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office) were transferred to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
NABU does not name the minister, but according to data from open sources, we are talking about Mykola Prysiazhniuk, the head of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy during the “Yanukovych era”. In June 2017, the court seized Prysiazhniukʼs assets worth $5.5 million from banking institutions of Ukraine.