Embezzlement of UAH 44.3 million: searches are conducted at the National Army Academy
20 March 2024 15:37
Law enforcement officers are conducting searches at the Hetman Petro Sahaidachny National Army Academy. This was reported by the head of the Vector of Law NGO Roman Verkholyak, Komersant ukrainskyi 
reports
Verkholyak said that UAH 44,347,240 had been misappropriated during the reconstruction of the Chervonohrad Military Lyceum of the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Army Academy.
According to him, the searches are being conducted under the procedural guidance of the Specialised Defence Prosecutor’s Office of the Western Region in the course of a pre-trial investigation conducted by the Main Department of the National Police in Lviv region, with operational support from the State Investigation Department in Lviv region of the State Bureau of Investigation of the National Police of Ukraine within the framework of criminal proceedings under Part 3 of Article 28, Part 4, 5 of Article 191, Part 1 of Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Suspicions were served over the misappropriation of UAH 44 million 347,240 thousand in budget funds by officials of the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Army Academy and officials of Ukrstroykomplekt LLC during construction works on the reconstruction of real estate in military camp No. 81 (military lyceum in Chervonohrad, Lviv region).
The head of the NGO “Vector Prava” clarified that today, on 20 March, the members of the organised criminal group were notified of suspicion and detained under Part 3 of Article 28, Part 4, 5 of Article 191, Part 1 of Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, consisting of
- organiser – Lomakovych V.A. (Advisor to the Minister of Finance of Ukraine);
- co-organiser – Babiak V.Y.;
- executive Director of UKRSTROYKOMPLEKT LLC – Klymenko E.I;
- accomplice – Head of the Production Department of UKRSTROYKOMPLEKT LLC Chubchenko O.Y;
- accomplice – accountant of UKRSTROYKOMPLET LLC Malitska S.A;
- accomplice – Senior Researcher of the Faculty of Combat Use of Troops of the National Army Academy named after Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi, Colonel Cherevko Y.M.
- an accomplice – the head of the military lyceum of the National Army Academy named after Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi (commander of the military unit), Colonel Syvousa I.V.
Verkholyak noted that searches are currently underway at the defendants’ places of residence and work.
It should be added that the searches at the National Army Academy named after Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi were also reported by Ihor Finkanin, Chairman of the Board of the NGO “Building Ukraine Together”.
LVIV.MEDIA writes that law enforcement officers detained seven people on suspicion of embezzling more than UAH 44 million of budget funds. According to the media, these are a well-known Lviv businessman, advisor to the Minister of Finance Vitaliy Lomakovych, and officials of the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Army Academy.
To recap, Vitaliy Lomakovych is a Lviv businessman who owns the asset management company Optima Capital and a number of companies operating in the construction, real estate and energy sectors. Since 2020, Lomakovych has been an advisor to the Minister of Finance.
Earlier, the SBU operatives established that during 2017-2020, the Academy’s officials purchased products at inflated prices from affiliated commercial entities.
In the course of the tender process, the participants of the fraud formed the “necessary” qualification requirements and unreasonably inflated the cost of supplies.
According to preliminary investigation data, the organisers pocketed over UAH 4 million annually.
