“The issue of imposing an arrest on the property of the participants is being resolved. They face up to 12 years in prison”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“In order to get hold of budget funds for the order of more than 1,000,000 sets of clothing for the Ukrainian military under the agreements concluded in 2022 at inflated prices, the former adviser to the ex-deputy minister of defense entered into a criminal conspiracy with the people’s deputy of the II-IV convocations. The deputy’s son and a foreigner also appear in the outfit. The received over 10 million dollars for the difference from the purchase price was planned to be divided among all the participants of the criminal scheme, in particular, the expositors of the defense department,” the message states.
Law enforcement officials believe that the scheme was organized by a foreigner who has been repeatedly prosecuted in France, Spain, Turkey and Indonesia.
“To fulfill the order, he selected a textile holding in Turkey and promised its managers to assist in obtaining a large defense order thanks to his connections with influential Ukrainian officials and politicians… The intermediary concluded five agreements with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine at inflated prices for the amount of more than 35 million dollars on behalf of a company controlled by him, and only after that signed contracts worth $25,600,000 with a Turkish garment holding More than 10 million dollars of the difference should have “fallen” into the pockets of the mediator, the adviser of the ex-deputy minister of the Ministry of Defense and the former People’s Deputy, who lobbied for the conclusion of these contracts,” the police say.
Also, according to the investigators, the organizer of the scheme did not pay the Turkish side more than 10 million dollars for the work done. The operatives of the Department of Strategic Investigations and the investigators of the National Police established that the organizer of the scam subsequently spent these funds at his own discretion.
According to the available information, the police established that the participants used the funds received under criminal schemes to purchase luxury cars and real estate, including abroad.
The issue of imposing an arrest on the property of the participants is being resolved. They face up to 12 years in prison.
Law enforcement officers are not releasing the names and surnames of the suspects. Sources of Sospilny reported that it is about businessman Roman Balykin (owner of the ATL group of companies), ex-National Deputy Ihor Franchuk and his son Yaroslav Franchuk.
The figures in the case did not publicly comment on the charges.
February 25 at the forum “Ukraine. Year 2024”, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umyerov said that an audit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is taking place and emphasized that work is ongoing to identify corruption schemes. According to him, “corruption during war is worse than terrorism” and “there will be no negotiations with those who steal from soldiers.”