Officials in Dnipropetrovsk to Face Trial for Embezzlement

An indictment was filed against the director of a municipal enterprise of the Kryvyi Rih City Council and nine other members of a criminal organization he created. They embezzled money allocated for the burial of soldiers.

Investigators found that the director of a municipal enterprise developed a mechanism for the illegal appropriation of money allocated from the local budget for the maintenance of cemeteries, the transportation of the bodies of deceased servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and improvements in Kryvyi Rih. He involved heads of departments of the executive committee and municipal enterprises of the city council, directors of private companies, entrepreneurs, and an accountant in the scheme.

According to the criminals' scheme, in 2023–2024, the controlled enterprises won tenders, after which they concluded contracts for the performance of works and the provision of services. Subsequently, the criminals entered false information about the scope of work into the documentation, overestimated the cost of services and materials, including the transportation of the bodies of deceased soldiers. The money was transferred to the accounts of the companies, after which the members of the organization distributed it among themselves. The total amount of losses to the local budget amounted to about 6 million UAH.

During the investigation, law enforcement officers conducted almost 80 searches. "During almost 80 authorized searches of the defendants' residences and workplaces, over 1 million UAH, 68 thousand dollars, 28 thousand euros in cash, mobile phones, bank cards, computer equipment, cars, documentation and draft notes were seized," the Prosecutor General's Office added.

They are charged with misappropriation of budget funds through abuse of official position on a particularly large scale, creation and leadership of a criminal organization, participation in it, as well as official forgery.

We previously reported that an official of the Holosiivska Regional State Administration demanded a bribe.