The SBU revealed that officials of Mykolaiv City Council misappropriated millions of hryvnias for city welfare.

The operatives of the special service established that the head of the City Council department set up illegal scheme via controlled contractors. These commercial entities received contracts for the arrangement and repair of parks and squares for more than UAH 80 m (USD 2, 857,142). During the execution of the agreement, the fraudsters provided inaccurate data on the quality of the building materials used in the accounting records. Additionally, the offenders overestimated the volume and cost of the services.

Within the criminal proceedings, law enforcement officers conducted a number of searches, including the city council and the involved companies. Moreover, the SBU employees seized media, accounting records, financial and economic documents, as well as accounting fraud proving illegal activities.

Currently, the SBU officers served the official a suspicion notice. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing to bring all involved persons to justice.

The operation was carried out jointly with the National Police and the Strategic Investigation Department of the National Police under the procedural guidance of the Regional Prosecutor's Office.