Detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) have finished a pretrial investigation in a criminal case related to causing loss of over UAH 48.5 million to state-owned enterprise (SOE) Chervony Zemlerob.

The NABU said on its website that on October 11, 2017, five persons were notified that they are suspected of committing the crime. Defense received access to the materials of the case.

The investigators established that the director of the SOE in collusion with top managers of two private companies organized a criminal scam due to which Chervony Zemlerob lost grain for over UAH 23 million in July-November 2015.

"According to the plan of the law breakers, grain belonging to the SOE was transferred to storage to one private company. Another private firm had to sell it under the guise of own-produced grain and thus legalize assets obtained through a crime, which was done," the NABU said.

As a result, according to a similar scheme in November-December 2015, the law breakers illegally seized the grain of the SOE for more than UAH 25 million. The deputy director of the state enterprise and individual entrepreneur were also attracted to the scam.

The investigation into these facts was started by the NABU detectives in April 2016.

In January-October 2017, the organizers of the scam were notified that they are suspected of committing crimes under the Criminal Code of Ukraine.