A court in the Odesa region upheld two separate sentences against a convicted lawmaker

The Black Sea City Court denied the Probation Center’s request to combine the sentences from two separate convictions against a public official convicted of bribery and embezzlement. The court ruled not to worsen the convicted woman’s situation, allowing her to serve both probationary periods concurrently.

This is stated in the ruling of the Chornomorsk City Court. 

<span><span><span><span><span><span>The head of the Education Department of the Chornomorsk City Council (who is also a member of the Odesa Regional Council) was caught embezzling budget funds during martial law. Between July 2022 and May 2023, the official used the passport information of real individuals without their knowledge to draw up fictitious civil law contracts for the provision of educational, accounting, and organizational services. In reality, however, all of this work was performed by regular employees of the Department of Education as part of their official duties.</span></span></span></span></span></span>

<span><span><span><span><span><span>Based on the forged contracts and work completion reports, the official regularly instructed the accounting department to prepare payment schedules. The cash disbursed from the treasury was received by her trusted associate, who was unaware of the criminal scheme, and then handed over to the head of the department. In this way, the official unlawfully embezzled over 238,000 hryvnias from the local budget of the Chornomorsk community.</span></span></span></span></span></span>

<span><span><span><span><span><span>During the trial, the defendant entered into a plea agreement with the prosecutor. The Chornomorsk City Court approved the agreement and imposed two separate sentences for different crimes. Specifically, for bribery, she was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, with a two-year ban on holding certain positions and a two-year probationary period. For embezzlement and official forgery, the sentence was set at five years’ imprisonment, with a one-and-a-half-year ban on holding public office and a one-and-a-half-year probationary period.</span></span></span></span></span></span>

Previously,<span><span><span><span><span><span>the former head of Mykolaivoblteploenergo had been acquitted of charges related to fictitious boiler room repairs. This occurred nearly 10 years after the case began. </span></span></span></span></span></span>The investigation established that the official signed acceptance certificates for 192,300 hryvnias without verifying whether the work had been performed. The company then transferred the funds to the contractor. Law enforcement officials concluded that the work was never performed and that the director of a private company had illegally received the funds.

Юлія Калабайда