OZG participants who appropriated more than UAH 11 million during the construction of barracks in Odesa region will stand trial
Among the accused are the directors of two commercial structures and officials of one of the terraison d'être of the Ministry of Defense. Some of them received suspicions in other proceedings regarding appropriation of funds during the construction of barracks in Donetsk region.
The scheme of appropriation of funds and persons involved in its organization was exposed by the operatives of the Department of Strategic Investigations in the Nikolaev area of the National Police together with law enforcement colleagues.
According to the investigation, from August 2018 to April 2019, two entrepreneurs under a contract contract carried out the construction of barracks of improved planning in a military town in Chernomorskoye. In order to seize funds, the latter developed a criminal scheme: attackers entered inaccurate information on the volume and cost of work performed during construction into official documents. On the basis of approved and signed by officials of one of the defense department's termacularies, budget funds for works that were not actually performed were transferred to the accounts of commercial structures. As a result, losses in the amount of more than UAH 11 million were caused.
On the basis of the evidence received in the course of investigative and operational measures, the organizer of the transaction — the founder of a private enterprise — and four executors — officials of one of the thermal management departments of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine — and the director of the company were informed of the suspicion.
Currently, the pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings carried out by the investigators of the SBI department located in the city of Nikolaev, under the procedural direction of the Odessa Regional Prosecutor's Office, has been completed and the indictment has been sent to court.
They incriminate the commission of criminal offenses provided for in Part 3 of Art. 28 Part 1 of Art. 366 (official forgery), Part 2 of Art. 367 (official negligence) and Part 5 of Art. 191 (appropriation, embezzlement of property or possession of it by abuse of official position) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
It should be noted that this is not the first case of appropriation by members of an organized criminal group of funds during the construction of barracks. Some of them in December 2020 and February 2021 were reported on suspicion of appropriating more than UAH 14.4 million during the construction of barracks in the cities of Bakhmut and Mariupol. In addition, in January last year, the suspect was also reported to an investigator of one of the Ministry of Defense's cyber managers. Negligent attitude of the military official to the service led to the squandering of funds allocated for construction.
For an act committed, participants of OZH can be threatened with up to 12 years in prison.
Department of Strategic Investigations
National Police of Ukraine
