Case description
The NABU and SAPO charge officials from the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS) and other individuals of embezzling funds from “The Wall” project. This initiative, introduced by then-Prime Minister Arsenii Yatseniuk, allegedly saw funds misappropriated through inflated work acceptance certificates and the involvement of fictitious companies to convert allocated funds into cash.
Key individuals involved in the case:
- Oleksandr Atamaniuk — Head of the Construction Department, Resource Support Directorate, State Border Guard Service Administration
- Volodymyr Tsalka — Chief Engineer, Capital Construction Department, Northern Regional Directorate of the SBGS
- Viacheslav Maidanovych — Senior Officer, First Separate Capital Construction Department of the SBGS
- Oleksandr Kashuba — Director of AZI LLC
- Ahaverdi Adilov — Director and Founder of Vitiaz Construction Center LLC
- Serhii Znachko — Former Director of the Chernihiv Regional Road Service
- Individuals Oleksandr Khvyshchuk and Viacheslav Bondar.
“The Wall” project was an engineering barrier partially constructed along the land border between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. Its construction began after the onset of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014. Arsenii Yatseniuk officially presented the initiative during a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
According to investigators, SBGS officials Atamaniuk and Tsalka conspired to misappropriate state budget funds allocated by the Cabinet of Ministers for the engineering development of the Ukrainian-Russian border and areas adjacent to the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) zone and the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
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Abusing their official positions, the suspects directed funds to the accounts of pre-selected companies, including Chernihiv Regional Road Service, Information Protection Agency LLC, and Vitiaz Construction Center LLC. In collusion with border officials, the company heads — Maidanovych, Kashuba, and Adilov — prepared and signed fraudulent work acceptance certificates, grossly overstating the volume of construction performed. Some parts of work has never been done.
Subsequently, Tsalka, acting as the administrator of the funds, approved payment orders to transfer money to these companies with the consent of Atamaniuk. A portion of the funds was laundered through a cash conversion scheme involving, among others, Kit-Trade LLC, and was ultimately embezzled and divided among the scheme’s participants. In total, over UAH 16 million was misappropriated from the state budget.
The accused face charges under the following articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Article 191, Part 5; Article 210, Part 2; Article 366, Part 1; Article 205, Part 2; and Article 205-1, Part 2. Three of the accused were released from charges related to document forgery due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
