SSU exposes UAH 102 mln embezzlement in tank armor procurement
The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau have dismantled a large-scale scheme operating in two regions of the country. The criminals embezzled 102 million hryvnias from the budget for the production of dynamic protection for tanks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
It is reported that, as a result of comprehensive measures in Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, the organizers of the transaction were exposed: the commercial director of the state-owned enterprise, its former head, and the owner of the contracting company.
As the investigation established, in April 2022, the state-owned plant signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for the urgent purchase of dynamic protection systems for domestic tanks. The equipped armored vehicles were to be immediately put into service and sent from the factory workshops directly to the combat zone on various fronts.
However, instead of immediately fulfilling the defense order, the main defendant, who then headed the manufacturing company, organized the embezzlement of budget funds.
To implement the deal, he involved the commercial director of the plant and the founder of a contracting company, with which he signed a contract for the purchase of components for armor protection at prices three times higher than market prices.
The businessmen took the resulting "difference" into the shadows through a network of controlled firms for further distribution among the participants in the criminal scheme.
Expert examinations confirmed the facts of particularly large losses to the state budget.
The three organizers of the crime were reported on suspicion of misappropriation of property through abuse of official position, laundering of property obtained by criminal means, and official forgery.
The suspected former head of the defense plant is already in custody as part of a previously launched investigation into the production of defective mortar shells. SBU investigators detained him in late April of this year.
We previously reported that a former official of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and two employees of the State Enterprise "Ukrspetstorg" were suspected of involvement in a scheme for the illegal sale of decommissioned warships .
In addition, a scheme to steal food from a military hospital was recently exposed in Khmelnytskyi.
