Kyiv exposes scheme to sell decommissioned navy warships: details
11 December 15:04
Kyiv police have uncovered a scheme to sell warships written off the balance sheet of the Ukrainian Navy, and a Defense Ministry official and two employees of a state-owned enterprise have been served with suspicion notices.
This was reported by the National Police of Ukraine, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
“Kyiv police investigators, together with the SBU, documented that the dealers organized the sale of decommissioned ships as scrap metal at a reduced cost, which caused the state losses of more than UAH 900,000,” the police said.
Law enforcement officers found that an official of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, together with two representatives of the authorized enterprise Ukrspetstorg, organized the illegal sale of six ships that had been written off the balance sheet of the Ukrainian Navy due to poor technical condition and obsolescence and were subject to disposal in accordance with the law.
According to the investigation, the main suspect, being the head of the Military Property Utilization Department of the Ministry of Defense and having access to documents and procedures for write-off, used his official position to circumvent the established rules for the disposal of written-off property.
As noted, the defendant created conditions for the sale of ships to a specific commercial structure.
“We are talking about six decommissioned ships, including Fastiv, Yevpatoria, Borshchiv and others. The offenders’ plan was to artificially transfer the ships to the lowest category for sale as scrap instead of the statutory procedure for ship recycling,” the NPU said.
According to law enforcement officers, the defendants then provided an underestimation of the value of the ships and a formal tender, the winner of which was chosen in advance by a specific private company.
The police reported that the value of the metal was deliberately reduced several times compared to the market price, which allowed the buyer to obtain significant economic benefits, and as a result, the company chosen by the accomplices received an undue benefit, and the state suffered losses.
Therefore, under the procedural guidance of the Kyiv Specialized Defense Prosecutor’s Office, investigators served all three participants of the scheme suspicions under Part 2 of Art. 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – abuse of office committed by a group of persons with prior conspiracy, which caused
