The SSU Counterintelligence and investigators exposed a member of Poltava Region Council on organizing a contract murder. According to the investigation, the official wanted to eliminate the owner of a local agricultural company in order to seize his business.

To carry out the killing, the councilor hired his driver, promising him USD 20,000.

The murder was planned to take place at a local abandoned pumping station. The organizer invited the businessman there ‘to discuss business issues’.

During the meeting, the killer was supposed to throw a noose of rope around the victim’s neck and strangle him, and then stage the hanging of the victim.

After that, the councilor planned to forge documents on the corporate rights of the businessman’s company in order to show himself as a trustee.

To prepare the crime, the perpetrators met in secret places without CCTV and communicated exclusively in person, not even by phone.

However, even such secrecy measures did not help them.

The SSU Counterintelligence worked proactively and caught the two suspects in the act of driving the businessman to a supposed ‘business’ meeting.

The SSU has notified the council member and his driver of suspicion under Articles 15.2, 27.2, 27.3, 115.2 of the CCU (organization and complicity in the commission of a completed attempted murder).

The operation was carried out under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor General’s Office.