An Odessa official will stand trial for electricity fraud

In Odesa, an indictment has been filed against the former head of a municipal agency who, without justification, overpaid more than 700,000 hryvnias for electricity supplied to educational institutions in the Peresypsky District. She faces up to six years in prison.

This was reported by the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Odesa region. 

According to the investigation, in 2023, a contract was signed between the municipal institution and a private company for the purchase of electricity for educational institutions in the Peresypsky District in the amount of over 17 million hryvnias. The document provided for the possibility of adjusting the price depending on market fluctuations.

However, when the market price decreased, the director of the municipal institution failed to take steps to recalculate the price as stipulated in the contract. On the contrary, at the end of the year, she signed a supplementary agreement with a private company in which the price of electricity was unjustifiably increased.

Previously, the Odesa tax office had succeeded in overturning court rulings in favor of two local companies that had entered into contracts to supply corn and oil worth over 27 million hryvnias. The Supreme Court remanded the case for a new trial because the lower courts had failed to verify the actual movement of the goods and whether the companies had warehouses for their storage.

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