Law enforcement officers eliminated a large-scale scheme of embezzlement of charitable contributions for the Armed Forces
The Security Service of Ukraine together with the National Police exposed and stopped a large-scale scheme of embezzlement of charitable contributions for the Armed Forces, which operated in the south and east of the country.
As a result of simultaneous operations in Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Kamiansk, six members of a group that embezzled donations allegedly collected to support the military on the front lines were detained.
The investigation established that under the guise of volunteers, the sections left only about 10% of the collected funds for the needs of the front, while the remaining 90% was shared among themselves. The scheme operated under the guise of a charity fund created in Dnipro by a local recidivist who is under investigation for drug trafficking. He recruited nine more accomplices to the outfit, dressing them in military uniforms for camouflage. Only two of them really had anything to do with the army as veterans.
The group worked in different cities, setting up boxes in the central streets to collect cash. In only one documented case, they appropriated 556,000 hryvnias of charitable assistance. During searches of the foundation’s office and participants’ residences, computer equipment, telephones, draft records with evidence of criminal activity, as well as money collected under the guise of donations to the army were seized.
The head of the fund and five of his accomplices have already been notified of suspicion under Part 3 of Art. 201-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provides punishment for the illegal use of humanitarian and charitable aid for the purpose of enrichment, committed by a group of persons during the period of martial law. They face up to seven years in prison with confiscation of property.
Comprehensive measures were carried out by SBU employees in the Dnipropetrovsk region together with the National Police under the procedural guidance of the Dnipro specialized prosecutor’s office in the field of defense of the Eastern region. The investigation is ongoing in order to bring to justice all those involved.
