"Dead souls" in Chornomorsk city hall: ex-officials face 8 years in prison

Odesa police investigators have completed the investigation and sent to court an indictment against the former head of one of the departments of the Chornomorsk City Council. The official is accused of embezzling more than <b>UAH 200 thousand</b> from the local budget through fraudulent documents.

According to the investigation, during 2022-2023, the head of the unit entered into civil law contracts with citizens without their knowledge. She used copies of unauthorized persons' passports to arrange services for document analysis, inventory accounting, and monitoring studies.

In fact, these services were performed by the council's staff as part of their direct duties. There were no grounds for engaging additional "specialists".

<b>How the "cash desk" worked</b>

The official falsified certificates of completion and submitted them to the accounting department. In order not to be exposed personally, she sent a proxy to the cash desk who was unaware of the criminal scheme. The intermediary brought the cash directly to the manager.

<b>What punishment does the defendant face?</b>

The woman is charged under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

<b>ч. 4 of Art. 191</b> (Possession of property by abuse of office under martial law);

<b>ч. 1 of Article 366</b> (forgery of documents in office).

"The maximum sentence that the accused faces is <b>up to 8 years in prison</b> with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions for up to three years," said Iryna Yablonska, Deputy Head of the Investigation Department.

The case file is currently in court. The state prosecution will be supported by the Black Sea District Prosecutor's Office.

As Intent previously reported, investigators notified the director of a limited liability company of suspicion of misappropriation of state-owned enterprise funds when paying for services for the reconstruction of a berth in Chornomorsk, Odesa region.

According to the terms of the contract, the state-owned enterprise transferred an advance payment to the contractor in the amount of half of the contract amount. However, the contracted works were not performed. Instead, the company's director used the funds at his own discretion. In particular, immediately after receiving the money, he transferred it to the private account of the company's founder abroad.

As a result of such actions, the state-owned enterprise suffered losses in excess of UAH 43 million.

Андрій Колісніченко