Prosecutors of the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) have decided to complete the pretrial investigation into a criminal proceeding regarding the failure to implement the program to launch the national satellite communication system, the key element of which should have been the Lybid first Ukrainian satellite.

SAPO Head Nazar Kholodnytsky wrote on his Facebook page said that now detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) were instructed to notify the former director of state-owned enterprise Ukrkosmos and his external adviser, as well as their defending lawyers, about the evidence collected during the pretrial investigation.

After studying the evidence by defending lawyers, SAPO will send an indictment to court.

Investigation into possible involvement of representatives of the foreign side of the program into committing these crimes was conducted separately, Kholodnytsky said. He said that SAPO count on cooperation with Canadian law enforcers in the investigation.

The SAPO head also recalled that the ex-director of Ukrkosmos is suspected of abuse of office in favor of an offshore company, the owner of which was his external advisor. The latter along with organizing the crime is also suspected of embezzlement of government-secured $8.245 million and money laundering.

The former head of Ukrkosmos was third suspect in the criminal proceeding investigated by the NABU. He is charged with abuse of office (Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The external adviser was also about a new suspicion of organizing abuse of office by an official (Part 3 of Article 27, Part 2 of Article 346, Part 5 of Article 191, Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code Ukraine). They were notified on January 30, 2019.

According to the NABU, the investigators found out that in 2011-2017 the suspects organized a scheme, as a result of which they withdrew abroad and legalized $8.245 million intended for the construction of a rocket carrier at the facilities of Pivdenmash and issued within the Export Development Canada (the Canadian export agency) loan under the guarantees of the Ukrainian government in the amount of $292.4 million.