A large-scale corruption scheme has been exposed in the Kyiv region, involving the heads of the state enterprise "Kyiv Regional Road Administration". Officials organized the illegal rental of state property for cash, creating a whole system of extortion against entrepreneurs.

How the scheme worked

According to Ukraine's Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, the head of the institution, his deputy, and the commercial director acted as part of an organized criminal group. They rented warehouses, premises, and other state objects to private entrepreneurs in two ways: at a significantly reduced price or without concluding official contracts at all.

Officials extorted the difference between the real rental price and the official payment from businessmen in cash. The head of the commercial department received more than 270,000 hryvnias from entrepreneurs, of which more than 217,000 hryvnias were transferred to the top management.

Arrests and searches

Participants in the scheme were detained while receiving another tranche of nearly 60,000 hryvnias. The heads of the state enterprise have already been notified of suspicion under Part 3 of Article 28, Part 3 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — this is the article on bribery by a group of persons.

During searches, cash in various currencies totaling nearly 600,000 hryvnias, mobile phones, laptops, electronic data carriers, accounting documentation, and rough notes with "black accounting" were seized from the suspects.

Suspicion against businessmen

In addition, suspicion was brought against four representatives of business who paid tribute. Currently, the issue of selecting preventive measures against all participants in the scheme is being resolved.

Context: other corruption cases in Ukraine

This is not the only high-profile corruption case in the country. Recently, law enforcement agencies have uncovered several large-scale schemes involving officials:

  • In the Poltava region, the NABU and SAP exposed a corruption scheme during the repair of local roads, within which a deputy and city council officials extorted kickbacks from contractors.
  • Former Chairman of the Supreme Court Vsevolod Knyazev received 5 years in prison with confiscation of property after entering into a deal in a high-profile bribery case and fully admitting his guilt.
  • In early June, law enforcement officers carried out a large-scale anti-corruption operation "Esculapius". Then the police conducted dozens of searches of doctors of the VLC in 16 regions of the country due to suspicions of illegal enrichment in the amount of about 200 million hryvnias.

The case in the Kyiv region became another evidence that the fight against corruption in Ukraine continues, despite the difficult situation in the country.