The High Anti-Corruption Court has granted UAH 100 million bail to an MP who is believed to be one of the organisers of the embezzlement of over UAH 140 million in the purchase of cables for Ukrzaliznytsya.
This was reported by the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.
The Anti-Corruption Action Centre noted that it was Viktor Bondar.
On 24 January, an investigating judge of the HACCU refused to satisfy the request of NABU detectives to take the MP into custody. He also imposed the following procedural obligations:
- not to leave Kyiv and Kyiv Region without the permission of the detective, prosecutor and court;
- to come to the detective, prosecutor and court at every request;
- notify them of any change of residence;
- refrain from communicating with employees and officials of Ukrzaliznytsya, representatives of the Ministry of Infrastructure, suspects and witnesses in the case;
- to hand over all their passports for travelling abroad and other documents that give them the right to leave and enter Ukraine to the detectives.
The Anti-Corruption Action Centre noted that the investigation named Bondar as one of the organisers of the scheme for the purchase of cable and wire products at inflated prices.
The defendants in the case organised a back office that allowed them to control Ukrzaliznytsia. As a result, UZ tenders with inflated prices were won by firms controlled by an MP and another person involved in the case.
Artem Shilo, a former adviser to the President's Office and former SBU officer, has already been suspected. He was released on bail last April.
Details of the case of transformers for Ukrzaliznytsya
- The investigation established that the organised group was created in 2021 to control the funds of UZ. In June-December 2022, the group's leader, through the carrier's controlled officials, ensured that a predetermined company was selected as a supplier of power transformers.
- The transformers were supplied at an inflated price. In addition, the accomplices used a letter from the Security Service of Ukraine ‘On Threats to State Security’ as a reason to reject the proposals of other bidders with much more favourable price conditions, while the connections of both the company that ‘won’ the tender and its Russian controller were deliberately ignored.
- The transformers were purchased through a Bulgarian-registered shell company from an Uzbek manufacturer partially owned by Russian entities and resold to UZ at twice the price. As a result, Ukrzaliznytsya suffered losses of UAH 94.7 million, which were seized by the perpetrators.
- On 2 April 2024, the head of the organised group and three other people were detained. On 3 April, seven defendants were served with suspicion notices.