Holidays in the Seychelles during the war: the case of a former Odesa military commissar is sent to court
8 October 11:52
Prosecutors have sent to court an indictment against the former head of the Odesa JTCC and JV, who was on holiday in the Seychelles instead of serving. This was reported by Komersant ukrainskyi with reference to the Prosecutor General’s Office.
We are talking about the former head of the Odesa Regional Centre for Recruitment and Social Support, Yevhen Borysov, who was suspended on 1 May 2023 due to corruption charges and replaced by Oleksandr Okhrimenko.
Prosecutors of the Specialised Defence Prosecutor’s Office of the Southern Region submitted an indictment against Borysov to the court on the facts of forgery and use of documents, unauthorised leaving of the place of service and evasion from military service (part 4 of Article 358, part 5 of Article 407 and part 4 of Article 409 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
The former Odesa military officer is currently in custody.
The investigation established that the suspect failed to report for service on 2 December 2022 and evaded it until 16 December 2022. As a confirmation of a valid reason for his absence, he provided a deliberately forged document. It was an extract from the medical record of a day hospital about the alleged stay from 2 to 16 December 2022 in a medical institution, allegedly approved by the hospital management, without the name of the doctor and his position.
It is also noted that on 19 December 2022, while undergoing inpatient treatment in a military unit, the former military officer misled the attending physician and fraudulently received a transfer epicrisis from the inpatient’s medical record with a recommendation to be sent for treatment abroad.
It was established that from December 2022 to January 2023, he was on holiday with his mother and wife in the Republic of Seychelles and the Kingdom of Spain.
The former Odesa military officer is currently in custody.
Borisov’s case: what is known
It should be noted that criminal proceedings are already underway against Borisov under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In 2023, he was detained by the State Bureau of Investigation and the court imposed a preventive measure in the form of detention with the possibility of bail in the amount of UAH 150 million. The courts subsequently reduced the bail to UAH 12 million.
The SBI conducted an extensive investigation, collecting a “huge” amount of evidence.
The investigation found that family members of the former head of the Odesa Regional Territorial Centre for Manning and Social Support purchased expensive cars in Ukraine and then moved them abroad. Also, the acquisition of luxury real estate abroad was recorded, totalling over UAH 190 million.
The difference between the value of the acquired assets and the legal income of the defendant and his family members is over UAH 140 million. The origin of these funds is not confirmed by any documents.
For example, one journalistic investigation showed that the military commissar’s mother became the owner of a residential building in Spain worth more than €4 million last year. It also turned out that, in addition to luxury foreign real estate, she also purchased a Mercedes-Benz EQV car this year for almost UAH 3 million.
Subsequently, law enforcement officers found that the ex-military commander’s mother-in-law had also become the owner of an expensive car fleet in recent years without having sufficient funds of legal origin. It included: Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG, Toyota Land Cruiser.
The ex-military commissar’s wife also purchased another foreign property – an office space in Spain worth EUR 737 thousand, also without having sufficient legally obtained assets and income.
The former military commissar has already been served with a notice of suspicion:
- acquisition by a person authorised to perform state functions of assets whose value is more than six thousand five hundred tax-free minimum incomes of citizens exceeds his/her legitimate income (Article 368-5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
- failure to report for service on time without valid reasons by a serviceman committed under martial law is a criminal offence (part 5 of Article 407 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
- evasion of military service duties by deception committed under martial law (Article 409(4) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
The sanctions of these articles provide for imprisonment for up to 10 years.
In December 2023, based on a request from the Prosecutor General’s Office for international legal assistance, the real estate of the Odesa military commissariat in Spain – a villa and office space – was seized. The court also seized 9 land plots, two houses, a household, two apartments and 1/3 of an apartment, and 6 luxury cars.
