Officials of the Odesa City Council will be tried for embezzlement of ₴3.9 million on purchases for the Armed Forces

The detectives referred to the court criminal proceedings against the officials of the Odesa City Council, who organized a scheme to embezzle budget money on purchases for the Ukrainian military.

This is reported by the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine.

It is noted that the director of one of the departments of the Odesa City Council and his deputy concluded 11 contracts worth 8.8 million hryvnias for the supply of ammunition and clothing for the Armed Forces of Ukraine at inflated prices.

«They bought shoes twice the market value or triple the price of tactical glasses. Officials also bought shoes, tactical suits, camouflage T-shirts, knee pads, elbow pads, etc.,» the report says.

Then the deputy manager entered into the official documents knowingly false information about the receipt of part of the goods, which did not exist at the time of signing the documents.

In this way, the accused, abusing their official position, caused material damage to the budget of the Odesa City Territorial Community in the amount of 3.9 million hryvnias.

Law enforcement officers opened criminal proceedings under the following articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

• Part 2 of Article 28 (commitment of a crime by a group of persons based on a prior conspiracy);
• part 2 of Article 364 (abuse of power or official position that caused grave consequences);
• part 1 of Article 366 (official forgery).

Currently, the indictment has been sent to the court.

It will be recalled that the prosecutors submitted to the High Anti-Corruption Court an indictment against former officials of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, who are suspected of embezzling almost 2 billion hryvnias during the purchase of low-quality ammunition for the Ukrainian military.