In Lviv region, SBI detains customs officer who took bribes for customs clearance of cargoes for "humanitarian aid"
Kyiv • UNN
A Lviv customs official was detained on a bribe for expedited clearance of goods as humanitarian aid after the State Bureau of Investigation documented the corruption following a complaint.
An employee of the Lviv customs office, who processed cargo under the guise of humanitarian aid, was detained for systematically taking bribes. This was reported by the State Bureau of Investigation, UNN reports.
Details
The detainee demanded money from merchants for organizing a "fast-track" procedure for cargo clearance under the guise of humanitarian aid.
In particular, in May of this year, he told a representative of a commercial structure about the possibility of facilitating the rapid clearance of goods under the guise of "humanitarian aid" without paying mandatory customs duties.
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The department said that it received a complaint from a merchant who did not agree to pay a bribe. Within the framework of the criminal proceedings, the Bureau's investigators documented several meetings during which the official explained to the businessman the mechanism of customs payment evasion.
SBI officers detained the offender after receiving another bribe in the amount of USD 16.3 thousand. He was served a notice of suspicion under Parts 3, 4 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (requesting an official to provide an undue benefit and receiving an undue benefit in a particularly large amount by an official)
Supplement
According to the investigation, in August of this year alone, the customs officer received USD 22 thousand for unimpeded passage of goods under the guise of humanitarian aid into the territory of Ukraine without paying mandatory customs duties.
It is noted that the amount of the bribe was determined by the customs officer as a "floating" percentage of the total value of the cargo.
Currently, urgent investigative actions are underway and measures are being taken to identify other possible accomplices in the fraud. Procedural guidance is provided by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
As a reminder,
the SBI and the SBU exposed fraud by Kyiv military officials in the sale of soldiers' food worth millions of hryvnias. The suspects face up to 15 years in prison.
