Company executives were sent to a pretrial detention center in connection with a case involving fake traffic lights in the Mykolaiv region

A court has ordered pretrial detention for the director of a company in the Mykolaiv region, who has been charged with embezzlement and document forgery.

This was reported by the press service of the Mykolaiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office. 

The company director has also been suspended from his position. He will remain in pretrial detention unless bail—499,200 hryvnias—is posted on his behalf. 

According to the investigation, contracts for the supply of traffic lights were concluded between a municipal enterprise of the Mykolaiv City Council and the company. The company’s director, presumably knowing that the equipment specified in the contracts had not actually been delivered in full, drafted and signed knowingly false official documents stating that the delivery had been completed.

Based on these documents, budget funds were transferred to the company for equipment that had not actually been delivered. As a result of these actions, the city budget suffered losses totaling more than 1.3 million hryvnias.

Earlier, the Ingulsky District Court of Mykolaiv began hearing the case against the suspended head of the Mykolaiv City Council’s specialized municipal installationand maintenance enterprise of the Mykolaiv City Council,Hryhoriy Patoka, and his wife Kateryna, who are accused of embezzling 1.3 million hryvnias in budget funds during the procurement of traffic lights.

In late December 2025,Hryhoriy Patokaallegedly ordered payment for traffic lights, even though he was likely aware that the goods had not been delivered. The amount in question is over 1.2 million hryvnias, which were transferred to the Kyiv-based company “Spetselektromontazh-7” LLC.

Кирило Бойко