The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is investigating criminal proceedings into the possible abuses in the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources during the period when it was headed by Mykola Zlochevsky.
“At present, the detectives of NABU are probing the facts of abuse, which, according to the investigators, took place when the Ecology Ministry purchased in 2011 the services of remote sensing of Earth using the state budget funds,” the NABU reported on Friday in response to the request of the “Schemes” program – a joint project of the Radio Liberty and the UA:First TV channel.
The criminal proceedings are investigated under the articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine “misappropriation, embezzlement or seizure of property through abuse of official position (in an especially large amount, committed by an organized group),” “legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime (in an especially large amount, committed by an organized group)”,” abuse of power or official position”,” service fraud, which entailed grave consequences.”
The NABU said the pre-trial investigation in the case is ongoing, no suspicion has been announced to anyone as of February 2.
The Bureau explained that they received this case from the Prosecutor General’s Office for investigation at the end of 2015. At the same time, one more criminal proceeding was handed to the NABU, which was launched by investigators of the Prosecutor General’s Office, into the facts of possible abuse when issuing special permits for the use of subsoil resources to business entities in 2010-2012. These proceedings were closed by the NABU in August 2017 following a relevant resolution of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).
