Seven members of organized group led by ex-adviser for President's Office notified of suspicion
Anti-corruption agencies of Ukraine reported suspicion to seven members of an organized group led by a former adviser for the Office of the President of Ukraine, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has said.
"NABU and SAPO have reported suspicion to seven participants of scheme to appropriate Ukrzaliznytsia's assets, which was exposed yesterday," NABU said on the Telegram channel on Wednesday.
As reported, on Tuesday, the exposure of the organized group led by the former adviser for the Office of the President of Ukraine was announced. The group's activities resulted into the appropriation of UAH 94.8 million during the procurement of transformers during the martial law. The group was created in 2021 to control Ukrzaliznytsia's financial assets.
"In June through December 2022, the head of the organized group, with the help of the Ukrzaliznytsia officials subordinate to him, ensured the selection of a predetermined supplier of power transformers," SAPO said, adding that the equipment was procured at an inflated price.
The head of the organized group "deliberately ignored the citizenship of the controller of the company which 'won' the tender and his ties with Russia." It was established that the transformers were purchased through a gasket company from the producer partially owned by Russian legal entities and then resold to Ukrzaliznytsia at a doubled price. As a result, Ukrzaliznytsia suffered losses estimated at UAH 94.8 million.
It became known that it is about former adviser for the Office of the President Artem Shylo. Interfax-Ukraine has not got an official confirmation of this information.
NABU said on its website on Wednesday that seven people have been notified of suspicion: the leader of the organized group, two members of the group, a former deputy head of Ukrzaliznytsia's Production Supply Center, a deputy director for economic and information security of the Office of the Director for Economic and Information Security of Ukrzaliznytsia, a person who acted on behalf of the owner of the supply company, and an employee subordinate to the head of the organized group. The case is qualified under Part 3 of Article 27, Part 5 of Article 191, Part 5 of Article 27 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
According to NABU, "the leader of the organized group was also informed of the suspicion of misappropriation of UAH 117 million during the purchase of cables for Ukrzaliznytsia, which NABU and SAPO exposed in March of this year. In addition, thanks to the actions of detectives and prosecutors, the court seized UAH 53 million in the bank accounts of the supplier company."