More than half a million hryvnias: in Odesa, the commander of one of the battalions was exposed in the embezzlement of budget funds

In Odessa, a battalion commander has been exposed for purchasing park-garage equipment at an inflated price, resulting in the misappropriation of over half a million budget funds. The police in Odessa Oblast reported this incident. Law enforcement officers discovered that the commander of one of the battalions, in need of purchasing park-garage equipment, assigned two subordinates to monitor price proposals to determine the most attractive prices for the purchase of the required equipment. However, despite receiving information that the market value of the necessary equipment was slightly over 300,000 hryvnias, the commander, driven by his criminal intent to squander budget funds, insisted that the winner of the procurement procedure should be an individual entrepreneur, whose price proposal was 1,000,000 hryvnias. When his subordinates objected, he threatened to create artificial obstacles to their military service, including sending military personnel to areas of active combat.

The drafting and signing of a knowingly disadvantageous contract for the purchase of park-garage equipment served as the basis for diverting from the budget the aforementioned amount of funds, which exceeded the market value of the contract item by over 600,000 hryvnias, and led to damages to the state in the form of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

The suspect has been served with a suspicion of committing a crime under Article 191, Part 4, of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misappropriation of another's property through abuse of office by a public official, committed on a large scale under wartime conditions). Such actions are punishable by imprisonment for a term of five to eight years with the deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to three years.

The issue of choosing preventive measures for the suspect is currently under consideration.

The investigation is ongoing.