Oleksiy Takhtay, who was involved in the sand sale corruption scheme, was appointed as the State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs

Oleksiy Takhtay, who was involved in the sand sale corruption scheme, was appointed as the State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs

The Cabinet of Ministers appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Oleksiy Takhtay to the position of State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The corresponding decision was made at the government meeting. This was reported by the National Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine.

The program "Schemes," a joint project of Radio Liberty and the "UA:First" TV channel, covered the progress of the competition for the position of State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. During the competition, a question was raised to Oleksiy Takhtay about a video recorded by an undercover SSU camera in the office of the former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Serhiy Chebotar.

The people in the video discussed how to profitably sell sand, which was allegedly seized as illegally extracted and stored at a state enterprise. Present in the office of Deputy Avakov, Serhiy Chebotar, were the director of this state enterprise "Spetsservice," Vasyl Petrivskyi, as well as the newly appointed State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Oleksiy Takhtay.
During the conversation, Deputy Minister Serhiy Chebotar mentions that "Minister Avakov is aware of the case and worried that the sand is not being sold and the hryvnia is falling."

In another video from Chebotar’s office, Oleksiy Takhtay, who worked as the head of the department of financial support of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2014, personally introduces Vasyl Petrivskyi, the head of the state enterprise storing this sand, to the office. Takhtay also tells Chebotar how the goods can be sold through an intermediary company at reduced prices and what has already been done for this purpose.

The court registry indicates that this video is authentic and was made by the Main Department for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime of the Central Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine.

In March 2016, the Military Prosecutor’s Office charged only one person appearing in this video — the director of the state enterprise, Vasyl Petrivskyi. The suspicion concerns embezzlement or misappropriation of property through abuse of official position. The investigation found that this enterprise attempted to cover up the sand shortage and artificially create legal grounds for its removal.

Neither the then Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Serhiy Chebotar nor Oleksiy Takhtay were charged.