Ukraine's SBU detains two entrepreneurs over defective combat shirts supplied to National Guard
Ukraine's Security Service has detained two Kyiv entrepreneurs suspected of supplying the National Guard with defective combat shirts worth over 8.6 million hryvnias and of offering a bribe to an official.
Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) announced on 5 November that it had detained two Kyiv entrepreneurs suspected of supplying the National Guard with defective combat shirts and of trying to bribe an officer into accepting them. The shirts are worth more than 8.6 million hryvnias (about $190,000). While Ukraine fights Russia's full-scale invasion, fraud in military procurement costs the country both money and equipment that fails soldiers at the front. The agency did not name the company.
How the case unfolded
In August, the company signed a contract to deliver 10,000 combat shirts to the National Guard. The SBU says the shirts did not meet technical specifications and were unfit for use at the front, and that the delivered batch was incomplete.
The two suspects then allegedly offered a bribe to an official at the National Guard's Central Support Base so that he would overlook the defects. He immediately told his commanders. SBU military counterintelligence, assisted by the National Guard commander, detained the pair as the bribe was being handed over.
The detainees are a woman who previously founded a Kyiv military equipment maker and a man representing the company. Searches of their workplaces, homes and cars turned up more than 3.5 million hryvnias (about $77,000) in cash, along with phones and documents. Both are in custody.
They have been served notices of suspicion of obstructing the lawful activity of the armed forces and of offering a bribe as a group. They face up to eight years in prison with confiscation of property.
Anti-corruption investigators turn to the SBU itself
The detentions come as anti-corruption investigators focus on the SBU. On 4 November, Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) detained SBU Major General Serhii Duka, whom it identifies as "Akim" in wiretaps of a group accused of running scam call centers. SBU head Oleksandr Poklad said he dismissed two senior officials connected to the case.
