Under the procedural supervision of the prosecutors of the Prosecutor General’s Office, a pre-trial investigation regarding a criminal organization, which included more than 15 people, has been completed. During 2018–2022, they fraudulently misappropriated the funds of four agricultural enterprises in the amount of more than UAH 69.9 million and tried to illegally obtain another UAH 52 million.

According to the investigation, the organization was headed by a resident of Dnipro. To implement the scheme, participants used forged passports, seals, documents, fictitious bank accounts, and involved corrupt connections in tax authorities.

The scheme mechanism consisted of several stages:

• through officials of the State Tax Service, they illegally received official data about enterprises in the agricultural industry;

• on the basis of this information, documents were forged and accounts were opened on behalf of real companies;

• introducing themselves as officials of well-known elevators and agricultural traders, fraudsters convinced suppliers to conclude contracts, offering more favorable than market conditions;

• after receiving funds under “agreements,” the funds were immediately transferred to other accounts and withdrawn in cash, mostly under the guise of “salary payments.”

Forged primary accounting documents were produced to legalize the origin of illegal income.

Actions of the organization's participants are qualified under Art. 255, 190, 209, 200, 358 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The most severe sanction is up to 12 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.

In addition, a pre-trial investigation was also completed regarding three employees of the Eastern Interregional Department of the State Tax Service on the work with large taxpayers. They passed on official information to one of the organization's members. They are charged with unauthorized copying and leakage of data from automated systems (part 3 of Art. 362 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The investigation was carried out by the investigators of the Main Investigation Department of the State Bureau of Investigation with the operational support of the Strategic Investigation Department in the Lviv region of the Main Strategic Investigation Department of the National Police.

Note: according to Art. 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 court verdict.

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The pre-trial investigation regarding the criminal organization that fraudulently misappropriated almost UAH 70 million of agricultural enterprises has been completed