On Friday, January 24, the High Anti-Corruption Court imposed a preventive measure on a sitting member of parliament suspected of orchestrating a scheme to embezzle 140 million UAH in cable procurement for "Ukrzaliznytsia." The deputy was not taken into custody but was required to post bail of 100 million UAH, reported the SAP press service.
Although law enforcement did not specify who the preventive measure was applied to, the Anti-Corruption Action Center noted that it concerns Viktor Bondar – the Minister of Transport from 2005 to 2006, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Transport and Infrastructure, and co-chair of the parliamentary group "For the Future." He is suspected of co-organizing a criminal scheme related to the procurement of cables for "Ukrzaliznytsia," which caused the company losses of 140 million UAH.
The deputy was detained on January 17, and on January 24, the court imposed a preventive measure on Bondar in the form of a 100 million UAH bail. In addition, the MP was required to:
“There is no obligation to wear an ankle monitor. The SAP prosecutor requested to take Bondar into custody with a possible bail of 200 million UAH”, the CPC reported.
As a reminder, law enforcement uncovered a scheme of embezzling millions of UAH in procurement for "Ukrzaliznytsia" between 2021 and 2023 – companies controlled by an entrepreneur who collaborated with the MP illegally won tenders.
Additionally, in the spring of 2024, law enforcement discovered that within the scheme, criminals were embezzling funds for the procurement of cables and transformers for "Ukrzaliznytsia." At that time, according to NABU estimates, the losses for cable procurement amounted to 117 million UAH, while for transformers, it was nearly 95 million UAH. Law enforcement then reported suspicions against the former advisor to the President's Office, Artem Shyl, who was later arrested with the option of posting bail.