A convicted ZKS employee, who was under investigation by the Internal Affairs Department, testified against the leaders of the reservation scheme

A supervisor at the production site of the municipal enterprise “ZhKS ‘Porto-Frankivskyi’” pleaded guilty in a case involving the fictitious employment of dozens of people and testified about other participants in the scheme.

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations.

According to the investigation, from April 2024 to July 2025, the forewoman of Production Section No. 4 at the municipal enterprise “ZhKS ‘Porto-Frankivskyi’” Tetyana Novokreschenova acted on instructions from the company’s management and participated in the fictitious employment scheme.

Law enforcement officials believe that the acting director, his first deputy, the chief engineer, the head of the human resources department, the production section manager, and other officials were involved. Their roles are being investigated in a separate proceeding.

According to investigators, the company registered 27 people who did not actually work there. Each month, their timesheets indicated that they had worked full-time, after which they were paid their salaries and other benefits. According to the case file, a forewoman entered false data into the timesheets, submitted them to management for signature, and distributed work among employees who performed the duties of their absent “colleagues.”

It is estimated that, as a result of this scheme, over 4.36 million hryvnias in salaries and over 960,000 hryvnias in unified social contributions were paid out without justification. The total losses were estimated at over 5.32 million hryvnias. Law enforcement officials are also investigating whether some of the fictitiously employed workers were used to obtain exemptions from mobilization.

During the trial, Novokreschenova pleaded guilty, testified against other participants in the scheme, partially reimbursed the losses, and transferred funds to support the Defense Forces. The court sentenced her to three years in prison and a fine of 17,000 hryvnias, but suspended the sentence with a one-year probationary period.

In June, the Center for Policy and Reform (CPR)analyzed the materials of criminal proceedings and court rulings that had already become final in cases involving schemes of fictitious employment of conscripts in Odesa and the Odesa region. Journalists concluded that the fictitious registration of conscripts is not an isolated abuse but a systemic corrupt practice.

Анна Бальчінос