Three suspected of UAH 88 million embezzlement scheme within State Migration Service

On Sept. 21, 2023, NABU and SAPO, with operational support from the Internal Security Department of the National Police, notified two former officials of the State Migration Service of Ukraine (SMS) and a businessman, citizen of russia, of suspicion of the misappropriation of budget funds worth over UAH 88 million.

The suspects are:

• the ex-deputy chairman of the SMS;
• the ex-head of the Department for Resource-Economic Support and Capital Construction of the SMS;
• the businessman.

Their actions fall under Part 5 Art. 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The investigation found that in 2015, the State Migration Service received a building from the government in the center of Kyiv to set up its central office there.

The businessman, who had longstanding friendly relations with representatives of the SMS and other authorities, organized an extensive scheme of embezzling budget funds using individuals under his control within the structure of the migration service. 

Thus, to execute the criminal plan, the businessman involved the head of the Department for Resource-Economic Support and Capital Construction of the SMS and then the deputy chairman of the SMS, who, instead of fulfilling their duties properly and under the law, for selfish gain, facilitated the misappropriation of funds allocated for the building's renovation. They secured that the companies under the businessman's control got the contracts for design and construction works, artificially limiting the participation of other enterprises in the competition.

The criminal group over the course of several years misappropriated budget funds by inflating the cost of completed work, issuing "empty certificates," and duplicating work. As a result, the reconstruction of the central office building of the SMS has yet to be completed, computer systems with the relevant software only exist on paper, and the companies responsible for the reconstruction have disappeared.

As a result of the scheme, the budget losses amounted to over UAH 88 million.

The materials collected by NABU detectives during the pre-trial investigation helped the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine in uncovering a conspiracy between two companies controlled by the businessman and imposing a fine of UAH 2.1 million.

The AMCU made the relevant decision on Dec. 27, 2022.

The current management of the SMS is actively supporting the National Bureau in the probe.