You're reading: SBU: Head of state environmental inspectorate in Volyn region detained for bribery

The Security Service of Ukraine has detained the head of Ukraine's state environmental inspectorate in Volyn region and his deputy under allegations that they demanded a bribe of Hr 100,000 from a subordinate, the SBU's press service reported on April 3.

"It was established that the officials developed an illegal scheme of systematic extortion and bribery from the heads of structural departments of this agency. The extortion of businessmen at checkpoints on the state border for the holding of environmental and radiological monitoring during the carriage of goods was to be the source of these funds," reads the statement.

According to the SBU, the head of the regional environmental inspectorate and his deputy demanded that their subordinate head of a department at the inspectorate give them a bribe of Hr 100,000 so as to keep him in office and subsequently ordered his to transfer Hr 70,000 to them every month collected as bribes during the exercising of controls at checkpoints on the state border.

The offenders were detained while receiving the bribe on March 28. According to the materials of the SBU, investigators of the Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case against the detainees under Part 3, Article 368 of the Criminal Code (large-scale bribery, the receipt of a bribe by a person holding a very responsible position), which foresees 8 to 12 years in prison with the confiscation of property and the deprivation of the right to hold certain posts or engage in certain activities for up to three years.