Employees of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) reported that they had exposed officials of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection who earned millions of hryvnyas every month from agricultural exporters.
The investigation has established that employees of the Main Department of the Ukraine’s State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection in Odesa and Zaporizhzhya Regions organised a corruption scheme to extort money for issuing phytosanitary certificates required for the export and import of agricultural products, as well as for the production of inspection reports required for the export of barley and corn.
The SBI notes that in fact, officials of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection created an organised criminal group with a clear division of roles and responsibilities. The group consisted of more than 11 people, including the head of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection in Zaporizhzhya Region and the head of the Department of Phytosanitary Security of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection in Odesa Region.
The group also included two chief inspectors of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection in Odesa Region and two from Zaporizhzhya Region, as well as civilians, including heads of brokerage companies, who acted as intermediaries.
According to preliminary estimates, the group received more than $160,000 per month from their illegal activities.
During 60 searches in different regions of Ukraine, more than $100,000 and 500,000 hryvnyas of illegal proceeds were found and seized, 8 elite-class cars, notebooks with a list of distribution of amounts between the scheme participants, as well as draft records and computer equipment used to produce the seized documents, and other items and things that will serve as evidence during the pre-trial investigation.
Five members of the criminal group were detained and notified of suspicion of receiving an unlawful demand on a particularly large scale (part 3 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
It is also planned to make a decision on serving suspicion notices to the officials involved in the fraud.
The investigation is ongoing.