The former SBI: Mykolaiv prosecutor is suspected of misappropriating more than ₴4.7 million of material evidence

The State Bureau of Investigation in Mykolaiv exposed the former prosecutor of the Mykolaiv District Prosecutor's Office, who allegedly embezzled more than 4.7 million hryvnias of material evidence.

Serhii Koziura, the head of the first investigative department of the Technical Department of the State Security Service in Mykolaiv, told about this at the briefing, NikVesti writes.

Serhii Koziura, head of the first investigative department of the State Security Service of Ukraine in Mykolaiv

According to law enforcement officials, in January 2022, a man in the position of prosecutor conducted a pre-trial investigation into the fact of receiving an illegal benefit. As part of the investigation, the law enforcement officers conducted a number of searches in the residences of those involved in the case and seized more than 4.7 million hryvnias. In the future, according to the court's decision, the seized funds were kept by the case investigator as physical evidence.

«After the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, the prosecutor decided to appropriate this money. He asked the court to hand over the seized funds to him under the pretext of allegedly transferring them to the Agency for Search and Asset Management, said the head of the investigative department of the SBI.

Together with the investigator, the prosecutor changed the funds in special packages for physical evidence to souvenir pieces of paper. With part of the stolen money, the man bought a car worth 35,000 dollars.

Souvenir money was found at the scene of the crime, with which the suspects replaced the real money. Photo: DBR

Souvenir money was found at the scene of the crime, with which the suspects replaced the real money. Photo: DBR

«In January 2023, the prosecutor, he resigned, and in March the court decided to return part of the seized money to the owner,» noted Serhii Koziura.

Currently, those suspected of embezzlement face up to 12 years in prison. Their property was seized.

We will remind, recently in Mykolaiv, managers of defense enterprises and limited liability companies were informed about the suspicion of property embezzlement due to abuse of official position.

It should be noted that in 2023, the number of registered criminal proceedings in the field of defense increased threefold in the Mykolaiv region. Last year, the special prosecutor's office sent 412 indictments to the court, 9 of them in the field of corruption.