The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) has uncovered a large-scale scheme of embezzling state funds for food for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Employees of the State Bureau of Investigation with the support of the leadership of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine exposed a large-scale corruption scheme related to the embezzlement of state funds that were allocated for the purchase of food products for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The scheme was organized by a resident of Odessa in early 2024. He founded two enterprises, which he registered under his control. Employees were officially employed at these enterprises, as well as the necessary infrastructure was rented – warehouses, refrigerators and transport.
The organizer ensured formal compliance of enterprises with the conditions of participation in tenders of the Ministry of Defense, thanks to which they offered the lowest prices and won tenders for the supply of food products for the Armed Forces. After concluding the contracts, he established contacts with military officials who submitted inflated or unsubstantiated requests for products to the authorized structures of the Ministry of Defense.
Enterprises issued fictitious expense invoices with an inflated volume of supplies, while the real documents, which recorded the real volumes, were destroyed. Companies received funds from the state budget based on forged documents.
As a result, military units often received low-quality products, including counterfeit or expired products. Some of the illegally obtained funds were used by the organizers for further crimes, and the rest were distributed among themselves. The total amount of losses caused to the state as a result of this scheme is almost 6 million hryvnias.
The employees of the SBI documented the complete pattern of criminal activity and detained all its participants. The organizer and eight others involved were notified of suspicion under Article 255 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (creation and management of a criminal organization, as well as participation in it), as well as under Part 5 of Article 191 (appropriation or embezzlement of property in particularly large amounts or by an organized group). The accused face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.
