Detectives of the Territorial Department of the Economic Security Bureau in Kyiv completed a pre-trial investigation into an organized group of people who misappropriated budget funds by abusing their official position. The group included the deputy director for production of a state-owned enterprise, the head of the pre-sale training section of the Center for Arms and Military Equipment and the director of a private enterprise.

Detectives of the ESBU established that in 2019, the aforementioned state-owned enterprise and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine signed an agreement on assessing the technical condition and repairing the components of the S-300PT air defense system.

Officials of the state-owned enterprise entered false information into official documents in particular about the need to purchase and receive 17 special devices from a private enterprise for repairs.

Subsequently the purchase was documented and UAH 1.5 million was transferred from the SOE's accounts to the private company's accounts.

To conceal such actions the officials also entered false information in the inventory write-off reports on the use of special devices as part of the repair of military equipment for the Ministry of Defense.

In fact, the devices were not delivered and repairs were not carried out. The funds were misappropriated and distributed among the members of the organized group. In this way the officials embezzled almost one and a half million hryvnias of public funds.

Currently, the indictment against the officials of the state enterprise and the private enterprise under Part 3 of Art. 28, Part 1 of Art. 366, Part 5 of Art. 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine has been sent to court.

Procedural guidance is provided by prosecutors of the Zhytomyr Specialized Defense Prosecutor's Office of the central region.

Note: Pursuant to Art. 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and shall not be subjected to criminal punishment until his or her guilt is proved in accordance with the law and established by a court verdict of guilty.