Ukrainian Wall Project case: indictment sent to court

On June 12, 2019, the indictment as of 8 persons, involved in the embezzlement of 16.68 million UAH allocated for the engineering and set up of the Ukrainian-Russian State Border, territories adjacent to the Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone and to Autonomous Republic of Crimea (also known as Ukrainian Wall or European Wall) was sent to Darnitsky District Court of Kyiv.

The officials of the State Border Service of Ukraine and business representatives are accused of committing the following criminal offenses:

• Head of the Construction Department of the Administration of the State Border Service of Ukraine - Part 5 Article 191 ("Misappropriation, embezzlement or conversion of property by abuse of office"), Part 3 Article 27, Part 2 Article 210 ("Violations of laws of state funds”) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine;
• ex-Head of the First Separate Department of Capital Construction of the State Border Service of Ukraine - Part 5 of Article 191, Part 1 Article 366 (“Forgery in Office”), Part 2 Article 210 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine;
• Senior Officer of the First Separate Department of the Capital Construction of the State Border Service of Ukraine (at the time of bringing to criminal liability – the Head of the Special Construction Group of the First Separate Department of Capital Construction of the State Border Service of Ukraine) - Part 5 Article 191, Part 1 Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine;
• Director of the Limited Liability Company (LLC) "AZI" - Part 5 Article 191, Part 1 Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine;
• former Director of the State Enterprise "Chernihiv Oblavtodor" of the State Joint-Stock Company “Ukrainian Highways” - Part 5 Article 191, Part 1 Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine;
• Head and founder of the LLC "Budtsentr Vityaz" - Part 5 Article 191, Part 1 Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine;
• accomplice - Part 5 Article 27, Part 5 Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine;
• another accomplice - Part 5 Article 27, Part 5 Article 191, Part 3 Article 27, Part 2 Article 205 (“Sham business”) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The investigation revealed that the “Ukrainian Wall Project” funds were embezzled by overestimating the volume of work actually performed compared to that indicated in the acts of acceptance of completed construction works. For withdrawing funds into cash the fictitious companies were involved in the scheme. In addition, the documents included works that had not been performed at all.

Within the pre-trial investigation, the NABU Detectives filed lawsuits for conducting forensic examinations, went directly to the border, where jointly with the experts inspected the sites for an objective assessment of the actual volume of work performed and to compare them with the data contained in acts of acceptance of completed construction works.

It should be reminded that the NABU started the pre-trial investigation as of the facts of public funds embezzlement of the realization of the so-called “Ukrainian Wall Project” in March 2016.

In August 2017, the NABU Detectives detained seven people on suspicion of involvement in the implementation of this corruption scheme. Two months later, in November 2017, one more participant of the scheme was exposed and detained.

On July 4, 2018, the investigation as of these eight people was completed, the defence was granted access to materials of the criminal proceeding for review.

The implementation of the “Ukrainian Wall Project” is still in the focus of attention of the NABU Detectives: a number of episodes related to this Project have been separated into separate proceeding. The investigation is in progress.