NABU, SAPO expose UAH 18 million embezzlement scheme within MoD

On Oct. 31, 2022, NABU and SAPO notified the former head of the Capital Construction Department of the Ministry of Defense of suspicion of embezzling over UAH 18.66 million allocated for the purchase of housing for the military. An accomplice, the director of a development company, was notified of suspicion as well. The actions of both fall under Part 5 Article 191, Part 1 Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

As established, in the spring of 2015, the acting director of MoD's Capital Construction Department, together with an accomplice, paid over UAH 18.66 million to a development company for 96 apartments in a building in the Kyiv-Sviatoshyn district of the Kyiv region (suburbs of Kyiv), allegedly ready for military personnel and their families to live in. In fact, the building was unfinished, the apartments had no interior decoration, and some communications were not in place. Despite this, the suspect actually falsified the documents necessary for the transfer of funds by entering wrong information about the readiness of the housing.

NABU and SAPO consider the MoD's official to be the organizer of the scheme, with the director of the development company being her accomplice. In particular, he submitted a declaration about the readiness of the building for commissioning, although the construction works were not over.

The investigation of these facts began in the fall of 2015 by the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office, which, despite the availability of an economic examination confirming the loss closed the case in October 2017. Three years later, the housing was still not ready, so in the summer of 2020, the MoD went to NABU. The detectives started a probe, saw signs of a crime, and made every effort to resuscitate the case. In November 2020, the case was transferred under NABU's jurisdiction. NABU and SAPO carried out necessary investigative actions and collected enough evidence to notify the official and her accomplice of suspicion.

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