Prosecutors of the Kherson District Prosecutor's Office have sent an indictment to the court regarding the director of an Odessa construction company. He is accused of embezzling budget funds in particularly large amounts and laundering proceeds obtained through criminal means (Part 5 of Article 191, Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The investigation established that in April 2021, the company received a contract for the capital repair and restoration of the Kherson Regional Art Museum named after Oleksiy Shovkunenko – an important cultural object of the region. The contract was concluded with one of the departments of the Kherson Regional State Administration.

However, instead of ensuring the preservation and restoration of cultural heritage, in December 2021, the director of the enterprise submitted acts with inflated volumes of completed work, embezzling 28.4 million UAH of budget funds. Subsequently, this money was laundered through a number of controlled business entities.

Materials regarding officials of the Kherson Regional State Administration, whose involvement is being investigated, have been allocated to a separate criminal proceeding and transferred for jurisdiction to the NABU.

The pre-trial investigation in this proceeding was conducted by investigators of the Police Department No. 2 of the Kherson District Police Department under the procedural guidance of the Kherson District Prosecutor's Office.

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 confirmed by a guilty verdict of the court.