Back
Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
International corruption scheme involving passports worth half a billion hryvnias: referred to court⚖️
A former director of the state enterprise SE “Polygraph Combine” will stand trial. He is accused of embezzling funds from this state enterprise, receiving undue benefit in the form of copyrights for the design of security elements of foreign passports and ID cards, and of laundering proceeds obtained from their use. An accomplice — the head of one of the SE’s departments — will also be tried.
As a result, the scheme’s participants seized state funds totaling about half a billion hryvnias.
In addition, the organizer of the scheme patented the intellectual property rights to the design of the security elements in favor of a controlled Estonian company. He acquired this right as a bribe from the mentioned manufacturing company so that it would have the right to supply holograms to the Polygraph Combine.
After the suspect was dismissed from the position of head of the Polygraph Combine and the new management moved to direct purchases from the manufacturer, he signed an agreement with a French company under which the Estonian company was paid remuneration (royalties) for the use of the design. The amount of the royalties was built into the price at which the products were supplied to the Polygraph Combine.
Thus every citizen of Ukraine not only overpaid due to the artificial inflation of material costs, but also effectively paid a “donation” to the suspect for his “intellectual contribution.”
During 2018–2021 years, approximately 7 million euros in royalties were received into the accounts of the Estonian company, which the suspect later laundered through controlled offshore companies. Part of these funds (124 790 US dollars) ended up in his daughter’s account.
Read more
#скеровано_до_суду
Telegram publication
