The head of the village council in Odesa region was detained on suspicion of misappropriation of ₴1.4 million allocated for reconstruction after shelling

The detained head of the village council in Odesa region, photo: Odesa Oblast Prosecutor's Office

The head of the village council in the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district of Odesa region is suspected of misappropriating 1.4 million hryvnias, which were allocated for reconstruction after the Russian attacks.

This is reported by the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office.

According to the investigation, the chairman developed a scheme to embezzle funds, in which he involved the director of the utility company of the village council, a contractor and a technical supervision engineer.

The suspects took possession of budget funds during the major renovation of residential buildings in the villages of Serhiivka and Chabanske.

They overestimated the amount of work actually performed, their cost and the cost of the construction materials used, thereby increasing the amount of money spent on building repairs.

In this way, almost 1.4 million hryvnias were deposited into the account of the contractor according to the acts of the completed works, which the officials divided among themselves.

The prosecutor's office also added that the director of the KP and the chairman of the village council will also be responsible for the embezzlement and appropriation of budget funds intended for the payment of salaries, which were accrued to persons who were fictitiously registered for work.

All members of the group were informed of the suspicion, added the Prosecutor's Office of Odesa.

As a reminder, during a large-scale special operation in almost all regions of Ukraine, law enforcement officers conducted 70 searches and informed 30 officials of suspicions regarding the embezzlement of 138 million hryvnias intended for the Armed Forces. Among the suspects are three heads of apartment management offices in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk region and Mykolaiv region.