The head of a defence company tried to steal money allocated for the purchase of spare parts for Su-27 fighter jets, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has reported.
“The SBU and the economic security bureau have exposed the head of a defence plant who embezzled budget funds for the purchase of spare parts for the Su-27… We are talking about power amplification modules for the onboard radar systems on Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jets,” the SBU said in its Telegram channel.
According to the SBU, the head of the defence company and his accomplices tried to steal 4 million hryvnias (almost $110,000) allocated for the purchase of spare parts. The agency claims that it was for this amount he concluded a contract with an affiliated commercial structure for the purchase of an aircraft module.
“The businessmen delivered to the state enterprise defective components, and its head ordered to take on the balance of defective products and pay”, – specified in the SBU.
The agency added that the defence enterprise transferred the first part of the payment to the company in the amount of half of the total amount of the contract. This money was later planned to be “transferred to the shadow through controlled companies, cashed in and distributed among themselves”.
The former director of the state enterprise, the head of the supplying firm and two other accomplices are suspected under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: “misappropriation, embezzlement of property or taking it by abuse of office” and “official forgery”. These articles are punishable by up to 12 years of imprisonment.
We shall remind you that earlier, the Ukrainian Audit Chamber said in a report that the Ukrainian Defence Ministry purchased food for military personnel at prices on average 30 percent higher than the market prices in the first half of 2023, thus confirming the embezzlement of 7.4bn hryvnyas from the Ukrainian budget.