29-01-2024, 12:29 PM
By Maria Kostenko, Alex Stambaugh and Christian Edwards, CNN
Published 10:08 AM EST, Sun January 28, 2024
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said it has discovered a mass corruption scheme in the purchase of weapons by the country’s military amounting to nearly US$40 million (1.5 billion Ukrainian hryvnia).
The SBU said the embezzlement involved the purchase of 100,000 mortar rounds for Ukraine’s Armed Forces in the fall of 2022.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry paid nearly all of the funds to arms supplier Lviv Arsenal, but the SBU said the ammunition was never received. Instead, it said some of the funds had been transferred to foreign accounts
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The investigation found that former and current high-ranking defense officials, the head and chief commercial of Lviv Arsenal, and a representative of a foreign commercial group were involved in the fraud.
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The SBU said five people have been indicted – and that one of them, a former defense ministry official, was detained while trying to cross the Ukrainian border.
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In December, a senior Ukrainian defense ministry official was detained over allegations he had embezzled 1.5 billion hryvnia (US$40 million) in a separate case involving an artillery shells contract.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/28/europ...index.html
Published 10:08 AM EST, Sun January 28, 2024
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said it has discovered a mass corruption scheme in the purchase of weapons by the country’s military amounting to nearly US$40 million (1.5 billion Ukrainian hryvnia).
The SBU said the embezzlement involved the purchase of 100,000 mortar rounds for Ukraine’s Armed Forces in the fall of 2022.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry paid nearly all of the funds to arms supplier Lviv Arsenal, but the SBU said the ammunition was never received. Instead, it said some of the funds had been transferred to foreign accounts
......
The investigation found that former and current high-ranking defense officials, the head and chief commercial of Lviv Arsenal, and a representative of a foreign commercial group were involved in the fraud.
......
The SBU said five people have been indicted – and that one of them, a former defense ministry official, was detained while trying to cross the Ukrainian border.
......
In December, a senior Ukrainian defense ministry official was detained over allegations he had embezzled 1.5 billion hryvnia (US$40 million) in a separate case involving an artillery shells contract.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/28/europ...index.html
