Head of Ukraine's defence state-owned enterprise tried to cash in on purchase of equipment for Su-27 aircraft – photo
Law enforcement officers exposed the former head of Ukrainian Defence Industry JSC and three of his accomplices in purchasing equipment for military aircraft with losses of UAH 1.9 million. The former official has been served with the notice of suspicion.
Source: Economic Security Bureau; Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine
Details: Detectives of the Economic Security Bureau (ESB) served the former head of a state-owned enterprise and three co-conspirators with a notice of suspicion of the embezzlement of state funds.
The ESB said these individuals tried to purchase a power amplifier module, a component of an onboard radar station used in a Su-27 fighter jet.
The investigation found out that the former head of the state-owned enterprise entered a criminal conspiracy with several individual entrepreneurs and signed a contract to supply a power amplifier module for military equipment for UAH 3.9 million (roughly US$106,500) in August 2023.
Since the individual entrepreneur supplier did not have such equipment, it was bought from a third company in a faulty condition.
Officials of the state-owned enterprise signed the deed of transfer of property, invoice and warranty letter for defective spare parts. Formally, the terms of the contract between the parties have been fulfilled.
Later, the company forged the acceptance and compliance certificates of the supplied equipment with state standards.
Based on the submitted forged documents, the accounting department of the state-owned enterprise of the Ukrainian Defence Industry JSC transferred the first part of the payment of almost UAH 1.9 million (about US$51,880) to the entrepreneur-supplier, which exceeded the tax-free minimum income of citizens by more than 600 times.
The Prosecutor General's Office reported that the offenders transferred funds to the controlled sole proprietorship-supplier in instalments, with the amount of a single transfer not exceeding UAH 400,000 (roughly US$10,800), to avoid financial monitoring.
They subsequently sought to withdraw the funds through shell companies.
Ukraine's Bureau of Economic Security (BES) stated that its investigators prevented the remaining UAH 2 million (roughly US$54,400) from being transferred from the state-owned entity's accounts.
The Prosecutor General's Office reports that the former director of a state-owned defence industry entity was served with a notice of suspicion of budgetary embezzlement and forgery (Article 191.5, Article 28.2, Article 366.1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Three of his accomplices are suspected of embezzlement (Article 27.2, Article 191.5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
The three accomplices have been imposed a restraint. A Kyiv court remanded the co-organiser and the businessman who supplied the faulty equipment in custody as a measure of restraint. Another accomplice will be subjected to house arrest.
The now-former director of the state-owned entity has repeatedly failed to appear in court, so the court ordered his detention and brought him in to consider a motion for a preventive measure.
The offenders face up to 12 years in prison, Ukraine's Security Service (SSU) said.
The criminal proceedings are establishing the legality of a range of other contracts. The quality, completeness and serviceability of the supplied equipment are being examined.
The pre-trial investigation into the criminal proceedings is carried out by the BES detectives, with operational support provided by the SSU and procedural guidance by prosecutors of the Prosecutor General's Office.
Background: In late November, Ukroboronprom, a Ukrainian state-owned arms manufacturer, denied claims by Russian sources that the companies of JSC Aviation and Rocket Technology Manufacture, Kharkiv Machine-Building Plant FED and JSC Kyiv Radar plant were cooperating with the Russian company Avia FED Service.
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