Former mayor of Lviv, suspected of embezzling charitable donations, has been arrested in Austria
Gennadiy Vaskiv, the former mayor of Lviv, has been detained in Austria on suspicion of embezzling international humanitarian aid funds. Ukraine has now filed a request for his extradition.
This is according to media reports.
According to the investigation, the arrest took place in March after Vaskiv arrived in Austria from the United States. Media outlets also reported that he may have been lured to Europe under the pretext of a business meeting.
Investigators claim that in March 2022, Vaskiv established the “All for Victory” charitable foundation, through which cooperation was subsequently established with the Estonian organization MTÜ “Glory to Ukraine.” As part of these activities, according to law enforcement, in August 2022, a portion of the collected donations may have been embezzled by inflating purchase prices and diverting the difference to affiliated entities.
The total amount of losses cited by the investigation is approximately 1.55 million euros. Separately, there are also potential losses amounting to tens of millions of hryvnias due to inflated prices of goods, as well as funds from the European Investment Bank.
According to law enforcement officials, after the investigation began, Vaskiv left the country under the pretext of transporting humanitarian aid and did not return.
As a reminder, earlier the Security Service of Ukraine, in cooperation with law enforcement agencies, documented a large-scale corruption scheme organized during public procurement for a strategic enterprise.
In the Odesa region, the director of a construction company was notified of suspicion of embezzling 8.4 million hryvnias during the reconstruction of housing for military personnel.
