A previously unknown private company secured government defence contracts worth about €200 million but failed to deliver most of the munitions, misused advance payments, and supplied defective mines that were unsafe and unfit for combat.
Ukraine's prosecutor general has uncovered a massive bribery and fraud case in which a private company supplied unusable mines and dangerous ammunition that did not meet technical specifications to the front lines, causing nearly $70 million in losses to Ukrainian taxpayers.
Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko announced on Friday that a Ukrainian company pocketed approximately $70 million in taxpayer money while supplying defective mines to the army.
A previously unknown private company signed five major government contracts with the Ministry of Defence, the Naval Procurement Agency, and the Logistics Command to supply various types of mines and ammunition worth a total of approximately 10 billion hryvnia (€200 million). However, according to the investigation, the company did not deliver the majority of the ordered products, while spending the advance payments, and the mines that were delivered were technically unsuitable for combat conditions. They did not contain enough explosives or did not work properly and often exploded in the hands of soldiers.
The investigation revealed that the perpetrators used a fictitious company that had no manufacturing experience. The company's managers did not use public funds to manufacture high-quality mines but instead purchased equipment from a third party, which they then sold on to other companies. In addition, they embezzled the advance payments made to them for contracts that were never fulfilled.
There are currently ten suspects in the case, including the managers of the supplier company, accountants, and military procurement officials; four of them have already been taken into custody. The prosecutor's office has indicated that it has filed a lawsuit against them, on the one hand to recover the public funds spent, and on the other hand to seek severe penalties for the suspects, which could include long prison sentences and confiscation of assets for those involved. According to the charges, the suspects caused a total of approximately $70 million in damage to the state: $13.3 million of this was wasted on faulty mines, and another $56.4 million was spent on setting up a production line that was never put into operation.
This is not the first corruption scandal of the Zelensky era. Last November, the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau uncovered a $100 million illegal cash flow linked to the president's closest friends. Footage of luxurious apartments in Kyiv, one of which even had a gold toilet, and images of cash packed into sports bags shocked the Ukrainian public. Also in November, former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov was arrested for his involvement in a corruption case involving Volodymyr Zelensky's friend, Timur Mindich. In December, a criminal organisation consisting of members of parliament was uncovered, whose members accepted money in exchange for their votes. Yuriy Kisel, who is at the centre of the case, also has close ties to the Ukrainian president.
Original article: europeanconservative.com