The High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) has ordered to detain the former director of the state-owned enterprise (SOE) Polygraph Combine Ukraina (Kyiv), suspected of embezzling about UAH 500 million of public funds.

"On September 13, 2023, at the request of NABU detectives, agreed upon by a SAPO prosecutor, the investigating judge of the HACC chose a preventive measure for the director of SOE Polygraph Combine Ukraina, suspected of embezzlement and legalization of about UAH 500 million," the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) said on its Telegram channel in Thursday.

The court agreed with the prosecutor's arguments and ordered to detain the suspect. "After the person is detained and brought to the place of the pretrial investigation, the investigating judge will decide on the application of this preventive measure," the SAPO said.

As reported, in July 2023, NABU and SAPO exposed a large-scale corruption scheme - almost UAH 500 million in losses at SOE Polygraph Combine Ukraina. To solve the crime, detectives and prosecutors used the help of colleagues, creating an international investigative team of investigators from Estonia and France.

The investigators established that the ex-director of the enterprise used a company registered in the Republic of Estonia controlled by him to enrich himself when purchasing consumables for the production of documents (including passports for traveling abroad, etc.). Materials for the Ukrainian state-owned enterprise were not purchased directly from manufacturers, but through an intermediary company. Thus, prices were raised four to six times. This made it possible to concentrate in the accounts of the Estonian company an amount equivalent to about UAH 500 million. After which such funds were transferred to the accounts of a large number of companies registered in different countries. In this way, their illegal origin was concealed.

In Estonia, the suspect was assisted by two citizens of this country, who ensured the management of the intermediary company in the unlawful interests of a Ukrainian civil servant.

This scheme was in effect during 2013-2016. That is why the cost of products of SOE Polygraph Combine Ukraina was artificially increased due to the corruption component.

In the period from 2011 to 2016, SOE Polygraph Combine Ukraina was headed by Maksym Stepanov. From January 2017, he served as head of the Odesa Regional State Administration, from March 2020 to May 2021, he was the Minister of Health of Ukraine.