You're reading: Former Acting Head of State Reserve Committee Nikitin taken into custody

Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv has ruled that former Acting Chairman of the State Committee of Ukraine for the State Material Reserve Vitaliy Nikitin be taken into custody.

On Jan. 31, Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv ruled that Nikitin be taken into custody as a pre-trial restriction as part of the investigation into a criminal case on the embezzlement of over Hr 7 billion of public funds, including misspent assets discovered by international audit organizations during checks on the use of public assets by the Ukrainian government in 2008-2009 and in the first quarter of 2010, the press service of the Security Service of Ukraine reported on Tuesday.

He is being charged with embezzling Hr 243 million by using a chain of subordinate enterprises for the acquisition of 22,150 tonnes of sugar for the State Reserve Committee. The SBU Main Investigative Directorate is probing the criminal case opened under Article 191 part five of the Ukrainian Penal Code.

Nikitin was appointed as deputy head of the State Reserve Committee by then prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Feb. 6, 2008. On April 7, 2010, he was sacked by Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov. The Verkhovna Rada’s legislative base contains no document stating the period in which Nikitin was acting chief of the Committee.