Fraud Uncovered in Military Uniform Procurement for AFU

Law enforcement officers exposed a large-scale scam on the purchase of military uniforms. Suspicions were announced against a former adviser to the Ministry of Defense, a former People's Deputy and his son.

As reported by the National Police, the scheme was organized by a foreigner - a "fraudster of international scale" who has been repeatedly prosecuted in France, Spain, Turkey and Indonesia.

In order to seize budget funds for the order of more than a million sets of clothing for the Ukrainian military under agreements concluded in 2022 at inflated prices, the former adviser to the ex-deputy minister of defense entered into a criminal conspiracy with the People's Deputies of the II-IV convocations. The deputy's son and a foreigner also appear in the outfit

According to the source of Suspilny, it is about ex-adviser of MOU, businessman Roman Balykin, owner of the ATL group of companies, people's deputy of three convocations Ihor Franchuk and his son Yaroslav Franchuk.

To fulfill the order, the foreigner, the organizer of the scheme, selected a textile holding in Turkey and promised its managers to help in obtaining a large defense order thanks to his connections with influential Ukrainian officials and politicians.

The Turkish side reported that the price of manufacturing more than a million sets of military uniforms will cost 25.6 million dollars and issued a power of attorney to the organizer of the scheme to represent its interests.

The intermediary concluded five agreements with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine at inflated prices in the amount of more than 35 million dollars. on behalf of the company controlled by him, and only after that he signed contracts in the amount of 25.6 million dollars. with a Turkish sewing holding. More than 10 million dollars. the differences were supposed to "fall" into the pockets of the mediator, the adviser of the ex-deputy minister of the Ministry of Education and Culture and the former People's Deputy, who lobbied for the conclusion of these contracts

According to the investigation, the fraudulent foreigner sent the Turkish side 10 million dollars as a deposit, and when the Turks sewed the uniform and delivered it to Ukraine, the intermediary stopped contacting them and did not give them more than 10 million dollars for the work done. The operatives of the Department of Strategic Investigations and the investigators of the National Police established that the organizer of the scam subsequently spent these funds at his own discretion.

According to the available information, it was established that the participants used the funds received under criminal schemes to purchase luxury cars and real estate, including abroad.

The police conducted 38 authorized searches of the places of residence and work of Ukrainian citizens involved in the criminal scheme, as a result of which documents, cars, mobile phones and computer equipment containing evidence of committed crimes were seized.

The investigators of the National Police collected enough evidence to announce to the adviser of the ex-deputy minister of defense, the former people's deputy and his son that they are suspected of fraud on a particularly large scale, committed by a group of persons (Article 28, Part 4 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The issue of imposing an arrest on the property of the participants is being resolved. They face up to 12 years in prison.

Earlier, BES detectives exposed officials of state institutions of the Zaporizhzhia region of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and individual entrepreneurs who seized state funds in particularly large amounts. It is about embezzlement and "laundering" of 5 million hryvnias during the purchase of firewood for the needs of the Armed Forces .

In addition, counter-intelligence of the Security Service of Ukraine together with NABU detectives exposed a large-scale corruption scheme in the Armed Forces of Ukraine . Two officials of the Logistics Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are suspected of abusing their official position during the procurement of aviation spare parts.