Heavy accusations, at a time when Ukraine is suffering from a glaring lack of soldiers. Ukrainian authorities announced Friday that they had seized the equivalent of nearly 5 million euros in cash from an official suspected of having helped resisters escape military mobilization in this country facing a Russian invasion.
The National Investigation Bureau (DBR) announced that it had discovered “nearly six million dollars” in various currencies, as well as jewelry and other valuables, in the apartment of the head of the medical commission of the Khmelnytsky region (west), responsible for assessing the suitability of men for mobilization, and in his office.
The manager, identified by media as Tetiana Kroupa, and her son, director of the regional branch of the state pension fund, were placed in pre-trial detention on Thursday, DBR spokesperson Oleg told AFP. Slobodian.
She tried to throw more than 450,000 euros out the window
Investigators discovered $100,000 in cash, fake disability documents and draft lists with “fictitious” medical diagnoses in the manager’s office, the DBR said in a statement. The family also has more than two million euros in bank accounts abroad as well as real estate properties in Ukraine, Austria, Spain and Turkey, according to the same source.
“Law enforcement officers found money in almost every corner of the apartment: in cupboards, drawers, niches,” detailed the DBR. During the searches, the manager tried to get rid of some of the money by throwing two bags with the equivalent of more than 450,000 euros out the window, the DBR added. This structure published photos and a video of the searches in which we can notably see a pile of wads of banknotes in front of a man lying on a bed, who has not been identified.
Up to 12 years in prison
The two imprisoned officials are suspected of large-scale fraud, “legalization of property received through criminal means” and illicit enrichment and risk up to 12 years in prison as well as “confiscation of all their property”, according to the DBR.
This information caused a wave of indignation on social networks, while the structures in charge of military recruitment are widely considered corrupt and the Ukrainian army is cruelly lacking in recruits after more than two and a half years of Russian invasion.
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) for its part indicated on Friday that it had dismantled a “criminal group of 13 people” in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city located in the North East, which helped more than 400 men to avoid mobilization in using fake disability documents. The head of a municipal medical commission and several of his subordinates were part of this group which offered their services for “$2,000 to $5,000” per person, the SBU accused in a press release.