Prosecutors from the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office of the Prosecutor General's Office, together with the Cyber Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine and employees of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI), uncovered a large-scale scheme of timber theft at the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” worth tens of millions of hryvnias.
This was reported by the Prosecutor General's Office and the SBI.
Thirteen employees of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” and the State Enterprise “Forestry Innovation and Analytical Center” (LIAZ), who participated in timber fraud, have already been charged. Among them are eight employees of LIAZ and five of “Forests of Ukraine.”
Photo: dbr.gov.ua.
Photo: dbr.gov.ua.
Photo: dbr.gov.ua.
They are accused of:
- creating and participating in a criminal organization, including through the use of their official position (Parts 1, 2, and 3 of Article 255 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
- unauthorized alteration of information processed in an automated system by a person who has access to it, committed as part of a criminal organization (Parts 3 and 4 of Article 27, Part 4 of Article 28, and Part 3 of Article 362 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
- the provision and receipt of unlawful benefits by an employee of an enterprise who is not an official for committing actions using the position he holds at the enterprise (Parts 1, 3 of Article 354 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
The organizer and three members of the criminal organization have been detained.
Photo: dbr.gov.ua.
Photo: dbr.gov.ua.
According to investigators, the initiator of numerous schemes was an employee of the State Enterprise “LIAC,” who participated in the development of the electronic timber accounting system (EOD). He organized a criminal scheme that made it possible to:
- reuse tags;
- change the amount of timber left at the company, info on how much timber was set aside for cutting and how much was actually harvested;
- change info in the TTN-les (transportation and delivery notes) about the amount, type, and characteristics of timber that had already been sold, the carrier, and other data entered into the system.
The perpetrator estimated the cost of each of his “services” at between 5,000 and 30,000 hryvnias. The funds were transferred to his bank accounts. Representatives of the forestry departments contacted the organizer and asked him to change the relevant information, and he did so personally or gave instructions to other employees of the State Enterprise “LIAC.”
Employees of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” became active customers of such illegal “services.”
“The most popular ‘service’ was among employees of the State Enterprise ”Forests of Ukraine“ in the Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr, and Kyiv regions,” according to the Prosecutor General's Office.
The foresters sold or used the surplus timber obtained in this way at their own discretion.
Photo: t.me/pgo_gov_ua.
Law enforcement agencies have already documented cases of the organizer receiving more than UAH 10 million from various officials of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine.”
Investigators are currently checking the involvement of more than 80 employees of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” and 20 employees of the State Enterprise “LIAC” in the transactions.
Photo: t.me/pgo_gov_ua.
The Prosecutor General's Office stated that it was able to reduce shadow turnover and increase official timber harvesting and sales on exchanges to over 70% (!!!) of the planned amount.
Every week, EcoPolitic reports on the exposure of dishonest employees of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” in its digests. These can be both ordinary foresters and top officials in the industry. For example, on July 21, the State Bureau of Investigation reported suspicion of illegal enrichment against Yuriy Bolokhovets, the general director of the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine.” The next day, it became known that the court had remanded him in custody with bail set at almost UAH 91 million.
