Former head of Kherson region utility company allegedly paid salaries to "dead souls"

Prosecutors of the Kherson District Prosecutor's Office have sent to court an indictment against the former director of a regional utility company on charges of embezzlement through abuse of office.

According to the prosecutor's office, in April-May 2022, during the temporary occupation of Kherson, the company headed by the accused did not actually carry out economic activities. At the same time, the director, having access to the company's accounts that received funds, used his office in the banking system to make unauthorized payments.

"Under the guise of paying salaries, he transferred funds to the accounts of five people who did not actually perform any work at the company," the statement said.

Thus, according to the investigator's estimates, more than UAH 630 thousand of budget funds were embezzled in this way.

Earlier, two former employees of the Kherson Department of Education were notified of suspicion of embezzling almost UAH 4 million of budget funds through the illegal accrual of bonuses during their employment. One of them is wanted, the case is being investigated under an article that provides for up to 12 years in prison.

In March, the Kherson Court of Appeal announced the verdict against Tamara Storozhuk, a former accountant of the Chornobaivka village council. The investigation found that she had charged the council's employees with inflated bonuses and allowances, causing the community budget to suffer losses of almost half a million hryvnias.

Meanwhile, another corruption scheme was exposed in Odesa region. The head of one of the emergency medical care substations organized a scheme to illegally obtain money allocated by the state for salaries for doctors. To do this, he involved his subordinates - doctors, paramedics and a senior paramedic. Together, they drew up fictitious documents to misappropriate budget funds.

Олеся Ланцман