Prosecutors of the Transcarpathian Regional Prosecutor's Office have submitted an indictment to the court against the director of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve for another instance of causing damage — 450 thousand UAH.

This fact of the accused's criminal activity was established after the materials regarding the damage caused by him and the chief accountant of the reserve, exceeding 6.2 million UAH, were sent to court.

The investigation found that due to violations in financial reporting committed by the accused, penalty sanctions were imposed on the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve in the amount of over 450 thousand UAH. The director spent funds from the state budget to pay these penalties.

Within the framework of this criminal proceeding, the director is charged with official negligence that caused severe consequences (part 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

It should be noted that the case against the director and the chief accountant of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve is currently being heard in the Rakhiv District Court. According to the investigation materials, during 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, the officials intentionally did not include the current coefficients for land payment indexation in their declarations. As a result, they avoided paying over 6.2 million UAH to the local budget. The saved funds were also used for paying bonuses to themselves and the employees of the reserve (part 2 of Article 28, part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Thus, the total amount of damage caused is over 6.7 million UAH.

Under the procedural guidance of the Transcarpathian Regional Prosecutor's Office, the pre-trial investigation was conducted by investigators of the Territorial Department of the State Bureau of Investigation located in Lviv.

Note: according to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in a lawful manner and established by a guilty verdict of the court.