Prosecutors of the Office of the Attorney General have sent an indictment to the court regarding 10 former and current officials of the Poltava Customs, including the former head of customs, the head of the customs post, and 8 state inspectors.

They are accused of abusing their official position, which caused severe consequences for state interests, committed as part of an organized criminal group (part 3 of Article 28, part 1, 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

According to the investigation, in 2020–2021, the accused intentionally failed to take action to correct the undervalued customs value of goods imported into Ukraine. This led to the non-payment of customs duties to the state budget of Ukraine in the total amount of over 17 million UAH.

They consciously ignored information previously provided by law enforcement about the possible falsification of documents for the purchase of imported goods and the undervaluation of their customs value.

According to the documents received from the competent authorities of the Federative Republic of Brazil in response to a request for international legal assistance in the criminal proceedings, it was established that the actual value of the declared goods was at least twice as high as the declared value.

In order to ensure compensation for the damages caused, a seizure has been imposed on all the property of the accused, and the prosecutor has filed corresponding civil claims.

The pre-trial investigation was conducted by investigators of the first investigative department (located in the city of Poltava) of the Territorial Administration of the State Bureau of Investigation, situated in Poltava, with operational support from operatives of the territorial administration and the Department of Strategic Investigations in the Poltava region.

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.