Ukraine seizes US$ 6 million in cash, jewellery from official accused of helping draft dodgers
Investigators said the woman tried to hide some of the money by throwing US$500,000 out of the window in bags
Ukrainian investigators said on Friday they had found stacks of cash totalling almost US$6 million during a raid of the home of a state official suspected of helping men dodge mobilisation.
The raid was part of a probe into an illegal scheme to register would-be draft dodgers as disabled.
With Ukraine seeking fresh recruits for the war with Russia, some unwilling to fight resort to bribery to avoid being sent to the front.
The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) swooped on the home of an official in charge of the regional medical commission in the western Khmelnitsky region and her son, a manager in Ukraine's state pension fund.
"During the searches, they found almost US$6 million just in cash, in various currencies," the SBI said.
Designer jewellery was also found at the officials' home, it said.
Investigators said that at the woman's workplace they found a further "US$100,000, as well as a number of forged medical documents, lists of 'draft dodgers' with fake names and fictitious diagnoses".
The officials were detained on Thursday on suspicion of fraud, money laundering and illegal enrichment, SBI spokesman Oleg Slobodian said.
The charges are punishable by up to 12 years in prison.
In a video that investigators said was shot during the raid, bundles of cash were shown spread out on a bed, while an unidentified man lay sprawled across it, touching the notes.
During the raid, the woman tried to hide some of the money by throwing US$500,000 out of the window in bags, investigators said.
Investigators said the family owned 30 residential properties, a hotel in Ukraine, real estate in Austria, Spain and Turkey, and had almost US$2.3 million in bank accounts.
Separately, in the eastern Kharkiv region, Ukraine's SBU security service said on Friday it had detained 13 people over a similar scheme to declare draft dodgers disabled.
The SBU said the scheme involved the head of a district medical commission in the city of Kharkiv and "the heads of various medical institutions".
Investigators found over US$500,000 in cash in searches, the SBU statement said.
It alleged the defendants had produced fictitious documents of clients' medical histories and inpatient treatment to show they had a disability, charging a fee of US$2,000 to US$5,000 depending on urgency.
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