In Kyiv Region, officials of a military unit were caught in a million-dollar fraud with food for their personnel.
According to the State Bureau of Investigation, the organised group consisted of military personnel and employees of the military unit who colluded with private entrepreneurs and sold some of the food intended for soldiers in shops, restaurants and markets. They took at least 30% of the food from the warehouse, thus reducing the daily food allowance for the military.
"The 'leftovers' were used in another scheme. A representative of a military unit, in collusion with a private enterprise, issued "empty" invoices for the supply of products worth millions of hryvnyas, which were not actually delivered. And on paper, the products that were not issued to the soldiers before they were sold were recorded," the statement said.
Due to the falsification of financial documents, the Ministry of Defence was misled into paying for food. At the same time, the criminals misappropriated the cash.
"Evidence of misappropriation of at least UAH 5 million has been obtained," the SBI added.
The officials of the military unit and one of the businessmen were served a notice of suspicion under the articles of misappropriation of property by abuse of office and misappropriation of military property by fraud or abuse of office (Part 5 of Article 27, Part 5 of Article 191, Part 4 of Article 410 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
The sanction of these articles provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to 15 years with confiscation of property. During the authorised searches, significant amounts of cash were seized from the defendants.