Seven Suspected in UAH 137.5M Kyiv Metro Wagon Scheme
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau reported that, together with the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, they exposed a criminal group that seized 137.5 million hryvnias from the municipal enterprise "Kyiv Metro".
This was reported by the NABU press service.
According to the investigation, at the end of 2022, the Warsaw Metro offered to transfer 60 metro cars to Kyiv free of charge. In 2023, a pre-determined company that won the tenders offered to transport the cars from Warsaw to Kyiv at a significantly inflated price of UAH 190 million.
After receiving payment for concealing the crime, the funds from the company's account were transferred to the accounts of another controlled company abroad. Later, part of this amount was paid to the real carrier, and the rest, UAH 137.5 million, was kept by the participants of the scheme.
As reported to the State Audit Service, the average market cost of transporting wagons from Warsaw to Kyiv is UAH 0.5 million. However, Kyiv Metro paid UAH 3.15 million for each delivered wagon.
UAH 189.34 million was paid for the transportation of all 60 wagons that arrived from Poland. While the estimated cost of providing such services could only be about UAH 30 million. That is, 6.3 times more funds were spent from the capital's budget than the situation required, the State Audit Service emphasized.
Among the suspects: a former employee of the municipal enterprise "Kyiv Metro"; three employees of the municipal enterprise; two co-organizers of the scheme; director of a controlled company.
The actions of the defendants were classified under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - misappropriation, embezzlement of property or taking possession of it through abuse of official position, committed on a particularly large scale or by an organized group. The sanction of the article provides for 7 to 12 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.
We previously reported that law enforcement officers have put Viktor Braginsky, the former head of the Kyiv Metro, on the wanted list, according to the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
