Odesa utility company sentenced to suspended sentence for dead souls

The Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa upheld a plea agreement concluded by the prosecutor with the head of the production section of the Porto-Frankivsk Housing and Communal Service on the plea of guilty to abuse of power and forgery.

As stated in the court's verdict, the site manager was sentenced to three years in prison, with disqualification to hold positions in public authorities related to the performance of organizational, administrative, or administrative and economic functions for two years, and fined UAH 17,000.

However, under an agreement with the prosecutor in exchange for a guilty plea, he was released from serving his sentence with a probationary period of the same three years.

The conspiracy

The case file states that the convict did not act alone and not at his own discretion, but in collusion with the acting director of the Porto-Frankivsk Housing and Communal Services, the head of the HR department of the said institution, the deputy director of the utility, the chief engineer and the first deputy director. Separate criminal proceedings are currently ongoing against all of these people.

They all knew for sure that the 15 employees of the housing office were dead souls, that is, people who were listed in the documents as employees of the utility company but did not actually work there, and they misappropriated the budget funds allocated to pay for the work of these people.

In total, 15 dead souls earned UAH 2 million 34 thousand in the housing and communal services company from February 2024 to July 2025, and the conspirators also embezzled a single social contribution in the amount of UAH 447,500. The court took into account that the convict voluntarily reimbursed part of the damage caused by his actions.

Earlier, in Odesa, the court extended the measure of restraint for an official of a utility company, whom the investigation believes to be involved in a fictitious employment scheme. Last fall, the CPR found that dozens of men avoided mobilization and embezzled budget funds through this scheme. It was about the head of the HR department of the Municipal Enterprise "Housing and Communal Services "Porto-Frankivsk", who is accused of participating in the organization of an illegal mechanism for registering employees only "on paper".

Кирило Бойко