In Ukraine, a large -scale corruption scheme was exposed in which employees of the Security Service of Ukraine and the State Border Service are involved. In the center of the scandal - a former border guard who, when moving to the SBU, began to blackmail his colleague with a compromise and demand hundreds of thousands of dollars from him.
According to the investigation, in the period from January to April 2024, the SBU officer, who worked in the Department of Military Counterintelligence, put forward financial requirements for the border guard for a total amount of $ 358 thousand. The money was transferred through cryptocurrency wallets, and the main mediator in the scheme was Sergey Pankush, a native of Lviv region. It was he who created fictitious accounts, converted cryptocurrency into cash and transferred funds to the organizer.
According to the investigation, the border guard paid $ 358 thousand in a few months, but in February 2024 declared a lack of funds. After that, Pankush continued to threaten the victim with the publicity of the compromise, but in March 2024 the border guard appealed to law enforcement officers.
Pankusha was detained in April of the same year, and later he concluded an agreement on plea and agreed to cooperate with the investigation, providing testimony against the organizer and the border guard. The court appointed him 8 years of imprisonment, but released from serving on the term of the probationary period of 3 years.
The pledge for Pankush in the amount of three million hryvnias will be transferred to the support of the Ukrainian Armed Forces through the United Project. In the event of the case, the border guard was suspected of granting a bribe, and the SBU officer - a bribe.
This scheme has attracted the attention of law enforcement officers, and NAPC does not currently check the origin of funds from the border guard, which raises additional questions about the transparency of such practices.
