New charges have been filed against Odessa municipal employees in the "dead souls" case

Police have announced new charges against members of a group of officials at a municipal enterprise who were previously exposed, in connection with yet another scheme in which the conspirators embezzled more than 2 million hryvnias in public funds. 

According to the press office of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Odesa region, the new charges involve abuse of power or official position.

In April of this year, a multimillion-hryvnia scheme involving Odesa utility officials was dismantled. At that time, officials and employees of one of Odesa’s housing and utilities services were charged, specifically: the acting director and his two deputies, the head of the human resources department, and the chief engineer.

In May,a court extended the detention of a utility company official suspected oforganizing a large-scale scheme of fictitious employment. As the Center for Public Investigations revealed last fall, this scheme allowed dozens of people to avoid mobilization while funds were siphoned off from the budget. 

Abusing their official positions, they fictitiously hired about 90 people as painters, janitors, electricians, mechanics, and furnace operators—these individuals did not actually work, and the scheme’s organizers embezzled their salaries. At the same time, the perpetrators also profited from men subject to military conscription. They formally employed these men at a critical infrastructure enterprise, on the basis of which the men received deferments from service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Furthermore, as part of the pre-trial investigation, it was established that the perpetrators were involved in yet another scheme aimed at embezzling budget funds during the cleanup of the city following Russian shelling. Police determined that the suspects had unjustifiably paid employees of a municipal utility company over 2 million hryvnias in targeted financial assistance for allegedly clearing debris—work they had not actually performed.

For over a year, the perpetrators drained the city budget with fictitious payments, causing damages totaling nearly 17 million hryvnias.

Last year,Intent conducted an investigation into the scandal involvingfictitious staffing at municipal utility companies. Despite the criminal proceedings, critical status was restored even to those housing and communal services (HCS) whose managers are under investigation.

Кирило Бойко