The Czech prosecutor’s office charged Volodymyr Gergel, the founder of the “Help Ukraine” fund, with large-scale fraud
The Prosecutor’s Office of the Czech Republic filed an indictment against Volodymyr Gergel, the founder of the “Help Ukraine” charity fund, in which he is accused of embezzling millions of Czech crowns intended to help Ukrainian refugees. This information was made public by the spokesman of the Prague City Prosecutor’s Office, Aleš Tsymbala, during an interview with Česká televize.
Volodymyr Gergel founded the “Help Ukraine” foundation in April 2022, the purpose of which was to promote the integration of Ukrainian refugees, in particular children and their parents, into Czech society. The foundation received significant funding — two subsidies from the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic totaling 20 million kroner (approximately $847,000). These funds were to be used to support educational programs, including Czech language training for Ukrainian refugees, and provision of free attendance at adaptation groups for children.
However, Czech TV journalists found out that the “Help Ukraine” fund took money from parents for children’s participation in programs, which contradicted the terms of providing funding. In addition, it turned out that the foundation had not paid salaries to teachers who worked with Ukrainian refugees for several months. The investigation also revealed that part of the received funds was spent on Volodymyr Gergel’s personal needs, in particular, on the purchase of an apartment in Prague.
The investigation established that the day after receiving the first grant of 15 million kroner, Gergel transferred approximately 2 million kroner to his mother’s account. Later, he withdrew 6 million kroner from the fund account and used 8 million kroner to buy an apartment. During the investigation, the police were able to freeze assets worth at least 12 million kroner, including a share in a housing cooperative.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Czech Republic, as of April 2024, there were about 339,000 Ukrainians living in the country who were forced to leave Ukraine due to the war with Russia. The incident with Volodymyr Gergel calls into question the activities of funds that work with Ukrainian refugees and draws attention to the need for stricter control over the spending of funds allocated for humanitarian aid.
