Law enforcement officers have uncovered a scheme to legalize funds obtained during the execution of defense contracts. The total amount of financial transactions that show signs of money laundering exceeds 578 million hryvnia.
This was reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General.
According to the police, the private company was supposed to repair and maintain military equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine using allocated budget funds, but instead transferred significant amounts through a conversion center to the accounts of fictitious companies. Formally, these payments were presented as purchases of spare parts or performance of work, but in fact were intended for the appropriation of funds by the organizers of the criminal scheme.
Investigators established that the money was transferred to the accounts of fictitious companies, where it was quickly withdrawn in cash and transferred to customers for a certain percentage.
The directors of the fictitious companies are Ukrainian citizens who have been living in the so-called DPR since 2014 and support the Russian authorities and their aggression against Ukraine. One of them works as a teacher and has even received the “Teacher of Russia” award. The founders of these companies are allegedly Polish citizens, but according to the response from the competent authorities of the Republic of Poland, these individuals are fictitious.
“According to the findings of an analytical study by the State Tax Service of Ukraine, transactions involving the formal purchase of spare parts through such companies for an amount of almost UAH 600 million contain signs of legalization of income obtained by criminal means,” the police said.
Police conducted more than 40 searches in Kyiv, Kyiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions, during which they seized financial and economic documentation of enterprises, mobile phones, electronic media, and correspondence detailing the work of the conversion group — from fictitious suppliers to organizers and intermediaries. In addition, three premium cars were seized.
Three participants in the scheme — the head of the conversion center, the co-organizer who coordinated the interaction between the enterprise and the conversion center, and the group’s accountant — have been notified of suspicion of legalizing income obtained by criminal means, in accordance with the role of each (Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The article provides for up to twelve years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.
The police are establishing the full chain of persons involved in the illegal scheme and determining the amount of damage caused to the state.
