In Odesa, a commander was sentenced to three years in prison for extorting money from his subordinates

The Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa approved a plea agreement between the prosecutor and the commander of a military unit who pleaded guilty to money laundering and bribery.

According to the court' s verdict, the man was sentenced to three years in prison with a ban on engaging in certain activities for three years.

This is the minimum sentence provided for in part 1 of Article 209 (legalization (laundering) of the proceeds of crime). As for Article 368, the military officer's actions were qualified under Part 3, which provides for a minimum of five years in prison, but the court decided that Article 69 could be applied, which allows for a sentence lower than that provided for in the Criminal Code, and sentenced the military officer to 2 years and 11 months in prison.

The crime was that in August 2024, the unit commander ordered his subordinate to collect 30% of the money they received as additional payments for performing combat missions from other soldiers.

The subordinate agreed, not realizing the illegality of this order, and announced the collection. The soldiers had to transfer the money to the collector's card on their own, and the collector, on the order of the commander, bought 2,200 USD with the money and kept it with him. In November of the same year, the commander repeated the collection and again collected 2,200 dollars. By that time, the subordinate collector had already realized the unlawfulness of the commander's actions and turned to law enforcement.

Law enforcers tracked the commander's actions, and in December 2024, when his subordinates again received "combat", he decided to collect the "tribute". Law enforcement officers waited until the commander withdrew money from his subordinate's card, took the last receipts from the intermediary subordinate and went to buy a car, and eventually detained him.

The court took into account the circumstances mitigating the punishment of the accused - sincere repentance, active assistance in solving the crime, committing a criminal offense as a result of a coincidence of difficult family circumstances, namely, a serious illness of the mother (group II disability, diabetes).

Кирило Бойко