The Security Service and the National Police have dismantled a large-scale scheme in the Cherkasy region involving the misappropriation of state funds allocated for the development of the agro-industrial complex in central Ukraine.

The investigation revealed that a former Minister for Environmental Protection from the Yanukovych era organised the scheme.

He is currently one of the owners of a local agricultural company which received UAH 5.6 million (USD 125,000) in grant funding from the state budget to set up new production lines for compound feed.

With this money, the businessman and his partners were supposed to purchase the necessary technological equipment and create new jobs.

However, instead of modernising production facilities, the company’s owner and his accomplices embezzled the grant money, divided it amongst themselves, and submitted knowingly false reports to the state authorities.

In the forged documents, the fraudsters claimed that they had purchased agricultural equipment and had allegedly expanded the workforce of the agricultural company.

A forensic economic examination initiated by the investigative team confirmed the illegal activities of those involved.

During the searches of their workplaces and homes, computer equipment and draft documentation containing evidence of the scheme were seized.

The former minister, his partner in the agricultural company and their accountant have now been notified of their status as suspects under several Articles of the CCU:

• 27, 191.5 (complicity, organisation and aiding and abetting in the misappropriation, embezzlement or unlawful acquisition of property through abuse of official position, committed on a particularly large scale or by an organised group);
• 28.2, 366.1 (forgery in office, committed by a group, by prior conspiracy);
• 209.2 (money laundering).

The suspects face up to 12 years’ imprisonment with confiscation of property.

The operation was carried out by the SSU Office in Cherkasy Region jointly with the National Police, under the procedural supervision of the Cherkasy Regional Prosecutor’s Office.