“Paper fighters”: fake payments to third parties for 15.5 million were exposed in the military unit

In the military unit from the Kyiv region, a large-scale criminal scheme of misappropriation of budget funds, organized by military officials and civilians, was exposed.

Source: State Bureau of Investigation

Details: As Ukrainian Pravda was told in the SBI, the criminal scheme operated during the years 2022-2024. So far, 5 suspicions have been announced and new ones are being prepared.

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The military unit is currently temporarily stationed in Donetsk region, but “paper” soldiers live in Kyiv region, some of them are even wanted by the TCC.

According to the investigation, the accountant of the military unit found civilians to whom he promised work in the military unit. “Clients” provided him with a package of documents, including their bank cards and personal payment data.

The impersonator credited their accounts with fictitious financial support payments and additional rewards in the amount of 100,000 hryvnias every month. At the same time, he did not officially register the men, but gave a small part of the payments supposedly “for using cards.”

To implement the scheme, the data of the “fighters” were artificially entered into the accounting information that was sent to the bank. At the same time, they were not in the personnel lists of the military unit.

As a result of such illegal actions, losses of 15.5 million hryvnias were caused to the state, the Bureau says.

So far, five “clients” have been notified of suspicion of:

• taking possession of someone else’s property by means of fraud in particularly large amounts, committed by a group of persons based on a prior conspiracy (Part 5 of Article 27, Part 5 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
• aiding and abetting the abuse of official authority by a military official, which caused serious consequences, committed under martial law (Part 5 of Article 27, Part 2 of Article 28, Part 5 of Article 426-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Sanctions of the articles provide for punishment of up to 15 years of imprisonment.

Suspicion notices are being prepared for three more civilians who took advantage of the scheme.

A separate proceeding has been opened against the accountant.

The pre-trial investigation is ongoing. The SBI identifies other officials of the military unit and civilians who may have been involved in the embezzlement of budget funds under martial law.

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