Commander in Odesa Detained for Extorting Bribes from Subordinates
In Odessa, police and the Security Service of Ukraine detained a 31-year-old commander of a military unit on suspicion of bribery. He allegedly demanded money from his subordinates from military pay.
This was reported by the Odessa Region Police and the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Defense of the Southern Region.
According to the investigation, for seven months the man demanded from his subordinates 30% of additional cash payments for the performance of combat missions. He motivated this by the fact that the military unit needed the funds, in particular for the repair of equipment. For those who refused to pay, the official threatened to create artificial obstacles in the service - to identify shortcomings in work, transfer to other units and combat zones.
In this way, from June to December last year, the commander received more than 400 thousand hryvnias from the personnel. He was detained while receiving a "tribute" for December in the amount of 41 thousand hryvnias
Investigators searched the serviceman's car and home. The money, mobile phones, and bank cards were seized as material evidence. He was charged under Part 3 of Article 368. of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which carries a penalty of ten years in prison with confiscation of property. The court chose for him a preventive measure in the form of detention with the right to post bail in the amount of 363,000 hryvnias.
The prosecutor's office added that they are also investigating the facts of the unjustified inclusion of military personnel in combat orders in order to artificially increase the amount of payments.
As a reminder, we wrote that SSU officers detained a serviceman of the Vinnytsia District TCP security platoon for a bribe of $16,000.