Photo from UNIAN
The materials were handed over to law enforcement agencies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced the exposure of another corruption scheme in the defense industry, through which almost US$30 million were withdrawn to offshore accounts under "suspicious contracts".
"Corruption is flourishing here, and at a very large scale. You've heard of a notorious corruption case at the Ukroboronprom state concern. The other day we showed law enforcers another corruption scheme in the defense industry," he said during a meeting of the National Council for Anti-Corruption Policy in Kyiv, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
"As it turned out, within five years of activity of the previous government, special exporters transferred over US$30 million under a few suspicious contracts to the accounts of offshore companies for their supposedly rendered services," the president added.
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As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian investigative journalists on February 25 released a report claiming that Ihor Hladkovsky, the son of First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleh Hladkovsky, is involved in large-scale embezzlement scheme in the defense sector.
It is alleged that Hladkovsky Jr. and his partners conspired with defense officials to procure military spare parts from Russian smugglers, as well as from Ukrainian Army warehouses. Prices for spare parts, which journalists say often failed to meet quality standards, were hiked significantly. Then, the journalists reported, the perpetrators would sell these goods to defense plants in conspiracy with top managers of Ukroboronprom, Ukraine's state-owned Defense Concern.
The group allegedly got at least UAH 250 million in kickbacks on Ukroboronprom deals. Journalists claim Oleh Hladkovsky is Petro Poroshenko's ally tasked with informally "supervising" the country's defense industry.
On February 26, Poroshenko suspended Oleh Hladkovsky pending the investigation. On March 4, the president signed a decree to dismiss Hladkovsky from the post of First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.
Hladkovsky said his son had become a hostage of "dirty affairs" and is filing a lawsuit against investigative journalists. The special Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office has opened criminal proceedings to verify allegations made public by journalists.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said that the PGO had since 2017 been investigating defense transactions announced in the media, and NABU – since 2016. According to the PG, the established amount of damage inflicted on the state budget is UAH 22 million. Lutsenko also confirmed that defense companies, including Kuznia na Rybalskomu, had used spare parts smuggled from Russia for the repair of military equipment.