Embezzlement of UAH 17.3 million by National Guard officials: indictment sent to court

NABU and SAPO have filed an indictment with the High Anti-Corruption Court against five persons who organized a corrupt scheme to purchase apartments for the personnel of the National Guard of Ukraine, which proved to be unfit for habitation.

The accused include:

 - two heads of National Guard departments;

 - director of the company that won the tender;

 - a lawyer, representative of the director of the company;

 - beneficiary of the company.

As established, in 2017, the government allocated more than UAH 85.94 million for the purchase of housing for the National Guard personnel. Being aware of this, the beneficial owner of a number of legal entities invented a criminal scheme to seize the allocated funds. With this end in view, he involved certain National Guard officials (members of the tender commission for the purchase of housing for servicemen) and commercial companies under his control.

Acting as a criminal group, the above persons determined there was a need for apartments in Kyiv region, where the company's half-built apartments were located.

Further on, the members of the group ensured the participation of the company in the tender for the purchase of housing, creating a misconception of the members of the tender commission, not involved in the crime, about the compliance of the proposed apartments with the conditions of the tender. According to the documents, the apartments were allegedly ready for habitation, but in truth, no utilities had been connected and the finishing works had only been partially completed. An examination conducted as part of the pre-trial investigation showed that the apartments were uninhabitable.

After the company won the tender, the National Guard concluded contracts for the purchase of the apartments, despite the fact they did not meet the requirements, of which the group members were well aware. On the basis of the contracts and transfer-acceptance acts, in 2017, the National Guard transferred over UAH 17.3 million of budget funds to a company's account. This amount, according to expert conclusions, constitute losses caused to the state budget.

NABU has been investigating the above facts since February 2020 after taking over the case files from the National Police. At that time, the investigating authorities defined the roles of just a part of participants in the scheme.

NABU Detectives and SAPO Prosecutors, upon gathering additional evidence, expanded the circle of participants and found that the crime had been committed by a group organized by the owner of private companies.