SAPO, NABU notify former head of State Reserve of suspicion

The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) have notified the former head of the State Reserve and three other participants in a scheme to embezzle funds from a state enterprise of suspicion, SAPO reports.

"Under the procedural guidance of a SAPO prosecutor, NABU detectives served notices of suspicion to 4 participants in a criminal scheme to embezzle funds from a state enterprise under the management of the State Agency for Reserve Management of Ukraine," SAPO said in a statement on its Telegram channel on Friday.

According to the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, the suspects include: the former head of the State Reserve, a former deputy director of the state enterprise, the organizer of the scheme, and an accomplice (a private individual).

The actions of these individuals have been qualified under Part 5 of Art. 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misapropriation or embezzlement of property in especially large amounts or by an organized group).

The pre-trial investigation established that in the autumn of 2022, the individuals developed a scheme to embezzle funds received by the state enterprise for warehousing services.

"The scheme involved providing warehouse space to controlled private companies under the guise of storage services. Officials of the state enterprise concluded fictitious contracts with these firms and entered deliberately false information into the acceptance-transfer certificates," the statement noted.

According to SAPO, the documents indicated that the area of the leased premises was significantly smaller than what was actually used. Subsequently, the controlled companies leased much larger areas of warehouse space to the real sector of the economy.

"Such actions resulted in damages of approximately UAH 36 million. The participants of the scheme converted these funds into cash and disposed of them at their own discretion," the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office specified.

SAPO noted that the organizer of the criminal scheme was detained while attempting to cross the state border. Currently, the court has applied a preventive measure in the form of detention.