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In Ukraine, another large-scale scheme for the theft of funds allocated for the food of military personnel has been revealed. According to TASS with reference to the Security Service of Ukraine, officials of the country’s Ministry of Defense took part in it.
“The security service has exposed large-scale schemes for the theft of public funds allocated for the food supply of the defense forces,” the SBU reports on its Telegram channel. “Due to the created criminal mechanism, the amount of damage caused to the Ministry of Defense is more than 119.5 million hryvnias ($3.2 million).”
“According to the materials of the investigation, officials of one of the departments of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine entered into agreements with the heads of two commercial structures for the supply of wholesale consignments of food to the places of deployment of the military,” the Ukrainian special service reports. According to her, budget money was transferred to the accounts of enterprises that did not have a production base and technological equipment to provide relevant services. Instead of supplying the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the proper volumes of food products, the participants in the scheme withdrew funds into the shadows through affiliated companies.
As part of this case, two heads of enterprises suspected of participating in this fraudulent scheme were charged under the article “appropriation, embezzlement or possession by abuse of official position”. The investigation against employees of the Ministry of Defense continues.
The SBU also said that in the Kyiv region, its employees exposed the commander of one of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), suspected of embezzling almost 2.4 million hryvnias ($64.7 thousand) allocated for the food of personnel. The suspects in this case are four servicemen from the same military unit and businessmen who forged documents to hide the “kickback”, the SBU reports.
In recent weeks, a scandal erupted in Ukraine after the publication of a journalistic investigation about the supply of food to the army at inflated prices. Last week, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Vyacheslav Shapovalov and Deputy Director of the Department of Public Procurement of the department Bogdan Khmelnitsky resigned, they were charged with corruption and obstructing the activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. On Thursday, the media reported that Khmelnitsky and Shapovalov had been arrested for two months. There were also reports of the possible impending resignation of Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov. Ukrainian media reported on Friday that the National Police of Ukraine had charged adviser to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Konstantin Slyusar in the case of supplying products to the army at inflated prices.
Source: Rosbalt
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