Prosecutors of the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office of the Prosecutor General's Office, together with the Cyber Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine and the State Bureau of Investigation, uncovered a large-scale timber theft scheme.

The investigation established that officials of two state-owned enterprises, “Forests of Ukraine” and “LIAC,” implemented a criminal scheme: an employee of the SE “LIAC,” being the developer of the Electronic Timber Accounting System, organized a criminal scheme that made it possible to reuse tags by removing them, changing the amount of wood left at the company, information on how much wood was set aside for cutting and actually harvested, changing information in the issued TTN-forest about the amount, type, and characteristics of wood that had already been sold, the carrier, and other data entered into the system. The cost of such a “service” ranged from 5,000 to 30,000 UAH.

The employees of the SE “Forests of Ukraine,” in turn, actively used these “services.” It was most popular among employees of the SE “Forests of Ukraine” in the Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr, and Kyiv regions. Currently, it has been documented that he received over UAH 10 million from various employees of the SE “Forests of Ukraine.”

From 2021 to September 2024, over 10,000 unauthorized changes were made to the Electronic Timber Accounting System.

Today, eight employees of the SE “LIAC” and five employees of the SE “Forests of Ukraine” are notified of suspicion for:

- creating and participating in a criminal organization, including through the use of their official position (Parts 1, 2, and 3 of Article 255 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);

- unauthorized alteration of information processed in an automated system by a person who has access to it, committed as part of a criminal organization (parts 3 and 4 of Article 27, part 4 of Article 28, and part 3 of Article 362 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);

- provision and receipt of unlawful benefits by an employee of an enterprise who is not an official for committing actions using his position at the enterprise (parts 1 and 3 of Article 354 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The organizer and three members of the criminal organization have been detained.

The involvement of more than 80 employees of the SE “Forests of Ukraine” and 20 employees of the SE “LIAC” in the commission of crimes is being investigated.

With the assistance of prosecutors, shadow trade has been reduced and official procurement and sale of timber on exchanges has increased to more than 70% of the planned amount.

Note: Pursuant to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in accordance with the law and established by a court verdict.

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Creation, participation in a criminal organization and obtaining unlawful benefits – 13 employees of the SE “Forests of Ukraine” and the SE “LIAC” have been notified of suspicion