The director of the Balt Forest District was accused of embezzling public funds

In the Odesa region, authorities uncovered a possible embezzlement of over 46 million hryvnias involving contracts from the Southern Regional Office of “Forests of Ukraine.” According to investigators, the director of the forest district and the head of a private company may have been involved in the scheme.

The Center for Public Investigations has uncovered the details of the case.

According to a ruling by the Peresypsky District Court of Odesa, from August 2024 to March 2026, officials of the Southern Regional Office of the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” entered into a series of contracts with LLC “89R13” totaling over 46.55 million hryvnias. The agreements covered work and services in forestry, sawmill production, construction, transportation, and wholesale timber trade.

The State Bureau of Investigation(DBR) claims that the private company did not actually perform this work. According to the investigation, its representatives may have acted in collusion with officials of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine,” and public funds may have been embezzled.

According to law enforcement, the organizer of the alleged scheme was the director of the Balt Forest District, who may have acted in collusion with the founder and head of “89R13” LLC.  

According to e-forest.gov.ua, Roman Lekay is the head of the Balt Forest District. According to YouControl, Dmitry Artemenko is the head and owner of “89R13” LLC. The company was registered in 2024 with a statutory capital of 10 million hryvnias. Since then, it has already received government contracts worth over 56.6 million hryvnias.

Investigators searched the company director’s premises and seized a laptop. During a search of the Balt Forest District, they also seized waybills and 775 electronic logging permits.

The State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) has also completed a pre-trial investigation into the head of the “Kodymske Forestry” branch of the state enterprise“Forests of Ukraine” and the former head of the “Balt Forestry Enterprise,” who are accused of organizing a system of monthly extortion payments from their subordinates

Анна Літман