Foresters from Bukovyna will stand trial for illegal logging during the war

Foresters from Bukovyna will stand trial for illegal logging during the war shutterstock
Katerina Belousova

To legalize the illegally obtained income, the perpetrator bought a new luxury car

Employees of the State Bureau of Investigation have finished pre-trial investigation of the forester and senior foreman of the Berehomet Forestry in Bukovina, who organized a "forestry scheme" worth 2.2 million hryvnias.

Illegal logging was organized in April 2022, reports the Terupravlinnia DBR in Khmelnytskyi on Facebook.

It is noted that the criminal group also included a senior forest foreman and two civilians, the investigation of which is separated into a separate proceeding. One of them fully admits his guilt, another is wanted.

"During the felling of the forest, the senior foreman deliberately indicated in the documents a smaller volume of felled wood in order to "profit" from the surplus in the future," the press service reports.

The DBR added that the illegal cubic meters were issued to the private firm of the sister of one of the participants in the scheme. They also produced fictitious delivery documents. The forester distributed the money received from the sale of wood among all participants of the scheme.

It is noted that in order to legalize the illegally obtained income, the perpetrator bought a new luxury car, which he registered for a distant relative. Currently, this car and other property of the participants have been seized to compensate for the damages caused to the state.

Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that in August in Chernivtsi region, suspected 5 former employees of Berehomet Forestry Farm, who caused losses to the state of over 2 million hryvnias, were reported.

As EcoPolitic previously reported, black loggers in the Sarnensky District of Rivne Oblast destroyed 977 trees, which caused 2.9 million hryvnias worth of damage.

Related
Illegal profits from waste, poaching, and deforestation: a roundup of environmental crimes
Illegal profits from waste, poaching, and deforestation: a roundup of environmental crimes

In Bukovina, in particular, a large-scale scheme involving the export of unaccounted-for timber was uncovered following 26 searches

Flower beds, sewer systems, trash: how Chernivtsi oblast spends its environmental tax
Flower beds, sewer systems, trash: how Chernivtsi oblast spends its environmental tax

Environmental fees in communities are used to remove dead trees and build sewer systems

More than 10,000 hectares of forest have already been planted in Ukraine this spring
More than 10,000 hectares of forest have already been planted in Ukraine this spring

In total, the plan is to reforest nearly 16,000 hectares of land over the course of the year