The Ukrainian deputy energy minister has been detained for accepting a bribe of $500,000, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) reported on Monday.
“The SBU and NABU, with the support of the Minister of Energy of Ukraine, have uncovered a large-scale corruption scheme organized by his deputy. As a result of comprehensive measures, the deputy minister of energy was detained in Kyiv in connection with a bribe in the amount of half a million dollars,” the SBU announced in a statement.
According to the media, the detainee is one of Minister Herman Halushchenko's deputies, Oleksandr Cheilo.
“For this amount (bribe), the official, using his authority, promised the heads of state-owned enterprises in the Lviv-Volyn coal basin to transfer mining equipment from front-line mines in the Donetsk region for use,” the SBU explained.
Detention of the Deputy Minister of EnergySBU/Facebook
From the mines near Pokrovsk
The SBU revealed that the management of the mines in the Lviv-Volyn basin had in the spring applied to the Ministry of Energy with a request to evacuate specialist equipment from the mines near Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. Today, this is one of the hottest sections of the front.
“The (detained) official who was responsible for saving the mining equipment started demanding money for its removal,” the SBU reported.
Along with the deputy minister, three other people who participated in this scandal were arrested. Its participants face a sentence of up to 12 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.
Main image source: SBU/Facebook