Officials of forestry in Odesa region sent to custody for extortion scheme

In Odesa region, law enforcement officers exposed a corruption scheme in a branch of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" where forestry workers were forced to pay monthly bribes under the threat of dismissal. Investigators are also checking the facts of illegal deforestation, which could have been part of the deal.

This was reported by the press service of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office.

The Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office has reported exposing a large-scale scheme of extortion of illegal benefits in one of the offices of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" in Odesa region. A forester of the branch and the former head of the representative office have already been served with a notice of suspicion under the article on bribery.

According to the investigation, the scheme was organized by a forest protection official who engaged an intermediary to collect the money. The forestry workers were forced to hand over 10 thousand hryvnias a month. The manager was not interested in where his subordinates would get the money.

In case of refusal, people were threatened with dismissal and artificial obstacles were created in their work. In particular, employees were not given the necessary permits for logging, without which they could not perform their duties.

According to the prosecutor's office, from November last year to April this year, more than UAH 230,000 was transferred to the official through an intermediary.

In addition to bribery, the investigation revealed facts of illegal deforestation. These episodes are currently being further investigated in the framework of criminal proceedings.

The court has already imposed a pre-trial restraint on the two suspects in the form of custody with the possibility of bail in the amount of UAH 4 million each. So far, no bail has been posted.

At the end of April, the Southern Housing and Maintenance Department in Odesa became the focus of an investigation for purchasing firewood for the army at prices several times higher than market prices. Although the documents showed that the wood was allegedly received and paid for, inspections of the warehouses showed that it was completely missing.

Анна Бальчінос