During the investigation of a multimillion-dollar scheme of embezzlement of budget funds through fictitious advertising and marketing services for the Dnipro City Council, the involvement of the former director of the municipal enterprise of the city council was established.

Based on the collected evidence, prosecutors from the Office of the Prosecutor General informed him of the suspicion of participation in a criminal organization, embezzlement of property in especially large amounts through abuse of office and official forgery (Part 2 of Article 255, Part 4 of Article 28, Part 5 of Article 191, Part 4 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

According to the investigation materials, the former director of the municipal enterprise was part of a criminal organization consisting of 10 other individuals. The organizer was an entrepreneur whose company previously provided advertising services to municipal enterprises in the city. The participants included individual entrepreneurs who provided services only "on paper." In reality, they worked as manicurists, taxi drivers, accountants, salespeople, laborers in construction, etc. Thus, they had no relation to the provision of professional SMM services.

In total, two decisions by the Dnipro City Council allocated nearly 95 million UAH in the budget for 2022-2023 for the provision of advertising and marketing services. This concerns the coverage of the activities of the city council, executive bodies, officials, and deputies through media, social networks, and messengers.

Currently, within the framework of the investigation, a forensic economic examination has confirmed damages of over 42 million UAH, which constitutes about 45% of the total amount.

The criminal scheme involved the transfer of local budget funds to the accounts of controlled individual entrepreneurs in amounts significantly greater than the actual work performed.

To achieve this, the organizing entrepreneur lobbied for their victory in tenders for the provision of these services. The involved director of the relevant municipal enterprise ensured the signing of acts of completed work for the full amount of the contract and transferred budget funds. The money was converted into cash and distributed among all participants in the scheme.

It is worth noting that earlier, under the procedural guidance of the Office of the Prosecutor General, investigators from the Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine, with operational support from the Security Service of Ukraine, informed 10 other participants of the criminal organization of their suspicion.

Note: according to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in a lawful manner and established by a guilty verdict of the court.