Under the procedural guidance of the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office of the Office of the Prosecutor General, an indictment has been sent to court against the head and chief accountant of the State Environmental Inspection in the Donetsk region.

The officials are charged with embezzlement of budget funds as part of an organized group, official forgery, and misappropriation of property through abuse of office, committed repeatedly, by prior conspiracy of a group of persons, under martial law and in particularly large amounts (Part 2, 3 of Article 27, Part 5 of Article 191, Part 2, 3 of Article 27, Part 3 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 366, Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The investigation established that after the start of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, the officials organized a scheme for the systematic misappropriation of state funds. In particular:

* from May 2022 to June 2024, salary was unjustifiably paid to an employee who was actually outside Ukraine and did not perform official duties;

* the head of the inspection issued orders for the calculation of inflated salaries with bonuses and premiums for 16 subordinates;

* the chief accountant demanded that employees transfer approximately 30% of the received funds to their own bank accounts and the accounts of close persons, covering this up as a collection supposedly "for the support of servicemen".

In this way, the accused misappropriated over 2.9 million UAH of budget funds.

The pre-trial investigation was conducted by the Main Investigative Department of the State Bureau of Investigation with operational support from the Territorial Department of the State Bureau of Investigation in Kramatorsk.

Note: according to Part 1 of 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.