Case of Ukravtodor: number of suspects increased

On July 28, 2020, on behalf of the District Prosecutor’s Office of Warsaw in the framework of the pre-trial investigation, NABU and SAPO gave a notice of suspicion to the beneficial owner of a group of companies operating in the field of road management in Ukraine. He is suspected of providing an improper advantage to the Former Acting Head of the State Road Agency of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) and futher legalization of funds in Poland.

Thus, the total number of participants in the crime has increased to six.

On July 20, 2020, NABU and SAPO jointly with the CBA and District Prosecutor’s Office of Warsaw detained a criminal group led by the Former Acting Head of Ukravtodor. Five persons were given notices of suspicion of abuse of influence. Among the suspects, there are:

• the Former Acting Head of Ukravtodor;
• two Polish citizens;
• foreign citizen, representative of one of the companies participating in the tenders of Ukravtodor;
• the Former adviser to the Acting Head of Ukravtodor, a citizen of Ukraine.

The investigation recorded 3 episodes of receiving by him improper advantage related to decision-making on the use of funds provided for the Ukrainian roads repairing. The total amount of credit funds provided by international financial organizations exceeds EUR 270 million. The criminal group aimed to receive improper advantage from road management companies. 

In one of the episodes, it was about paying 10% of "consulting services", which amounted to more than EUR 180 thousand. In another episode, the winning company had to pay a contribution to a specially created joint company in Poland. The equivalent of the amount at the time of the crime is over UAH 3.5 million.

In another episode, it was mentioned about the purchase of a specially created company with a share capital of EUR 15 thousand for EUR 300-350 thousand. In exchange, the ex-Head of Ukravtodor promised not to pay attention to the breach of contract by one of the contracting companies of Ukravtodor and not to require it to pay penalties. These crimes began in Ukraine and ended in Poland.

The NABU Detectives started investigation in September 2019. In two months the NABU proceeding was joined with investigation of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau of Poland. The European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) provided an international platform for effective coordination of work of two anti-corruption bodies — NABU and the CBA.

According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine a person is considered not-guilty in commission of crime and cannot be a subject to criminal punishment, until he or she is found guilty by the court.

Photo: finbalance.com.ua