Defense official and two retail workers caught selling off old warships
Law enforcement officers have uncovered a scheme to sell decommissioned warships with losses to the state of over UAH 900,000, the National Police of Ukraine has said.
"Law enforcement officers have established that one of the officials of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, together with two representatives of the authorized enterprise of the State Enterprise Ukrspetstorg, organized the illegal sale of six sea vessels, decommissioned from the balance of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine due to unsatisfactory technical condition and obsolescence, which were subject to disposal in accordance with the procedure established by law," the report on the department’s website says on Wednesday.
According to the investigation, the main defendant, being the head of the Department for the Disposal of Military Property of the Ministry of Defense and having access to documents and procedures for decommissioning, used his official position to circumvent the established rules for the disposal of decommissioned property. Namely, he created conditions for the sale of vessels to a specific commercial structure. These are six decommissioned ships, including Fastiv, Evpatoria, Borshchiv and others.
"The plan of the perpetrators was that instead of the procedure for the disposal of ships provided for by law, they were artificially transferred to the lowest category for sale as scrap metal. After that, the perpetrators provided an understated assessment of the value of the ships and a formal competition, the winner of which was selected in advance by a specific private company. The cost of the metal was deliberately reduced several times compared to the market price, which allowed the buyer to receive a significant economic benefit," the report states.
As a result, the company chosen by the accomplices received an unlawful benefit, and the state suffered losses of more than UAH 900,000.
Under the procedural guidance of the Kyiv Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in the field of defense, investigators informed all three participants in the scheme of suspicions under Part 2 of Art. 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – abuse of official position, committed by prior conspiracy by a group of persons, which caused grave consequences.