Odesa region exposes corruption scheme at customs that allowed avoiding mobilization

During a special operation in Odesa, four officials of the Anti-Smuggling Department of the local customs office were exposed for extorting money from entrepreneurs for unimpeded export of goods from Ukraine.

In addition, officials of one of the customs posts in Odesa region were searched for bribes for customs clearance of products without paying customs duties.

This was reported by the Prosecutor General's Office.

During this day, joint efforts of the Prosecutor General's Office, together with the SBU, the State Bureau of Investigation, the National Police and the BES, stopped criminal schemes at customs. This happened simultaneously in three regions: Odesa, Volyn and Chernivtsi regions.

The SBU exposed the activities of a group headed by the current Deputy Director of the Department of International Cooperation of the State Customs Service of Ukraine.

He involved a group of officials of the NGO "International Diplomatic Mission "Organization for Security of the Community of Europe", who, under the guise of the OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine, set up a mechanism for receiving remuneration for issuing pseudo-OCSCE certificates to Ukrainian citizens.

These certificates allowed them to avoid mobilization.

The official was detained in accordance with Art. 208 of the CPC of Ukraine directly while receiving $6.8 thousand for the production of another batch of certificates. A notice of suspicion is being prepared under Part 1 Art. 114-1, Part 3 Art. 369-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Under the procedural supervision of the prosecutors, the pre-trial investigation into the detected facts of illegal activities of customs officials is ongoing.

Systematic work to identify and stop such crimes continues.

Law enforcement agencies also do not give collaborators a chance to achieve their goals together with our enemy Russia. Thus, the Prosecutor's Office detained a man who leaked the locations of Ukrainian defenders on the air of "Chat Roulette".

Олександра Горст