Investigators have exposed a plot to misappropriate Ukrenergo finances during the renovation of power infrastructure in the Lviv region. The plan involves the chief of a division at Ukrenergo along with the previous director of a contracting firm, who inflated the price of services rendered.
Law enforcement personnel uncovered a plan to siphon off Ukrenergo assets during the refurbishment of the Lviv region’s power grid following Russian bombardment, the regional SBU division declared on Wednesday, UNN reports.
The Security Service and the National Police have revealed a scheme to defraud funds from NPC Ukrenergo allocated for urgent repair operations on the Lviv region’s energy infrastructure.
– the SBU reported.
Details
Per the case records, “a director within the Western Territorial Service Branch of NEC Ukrenergo and the previous CEO of the contracting organization are implicated in orchestrating the arrangement.”
As determined by the inquiry, in December 2022, PJSC “NPC “Ukrenergo” entered into an agreement with LLC for the maintenance and rehabilitation of compromised transformers, totaling UAH 16.3 million.
It was found that “during the execution of the aforementioned tasks, documentation included work that was not actually performed, and the prices of labor and resources were artificially elevated.”
“Notably, an NPC Ukrenergo representative, acting in favor of the LLC, falsified “documents” and purposely neglected to validate the completed transformer repairs. Consequently, a fraction of the allocated budget for restoring power infrastructure in the wake of Russian strikes ended up in the perpetrators’ possession,” the SBU stated.
The accused, as indicated, were informed of suspicions related to the offenses they committed under Part 2 of Article 364 (abuse of authority); Part 4 of Article 191 (misappropriation of another’s property through an official’s abuse of their position, carried out on a substantial scale, under conditions of martial law); Part 1 of Article 366 (official document forgery) of the Ukrainian Criminal Code.