The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine is conducting a pre-trial investigation into the alleged misappropriation of over $45 million in charitable funds by officials from the Ministry of Digital Transformation. The funds, collected via the KUNA cryptocurrency exchange, were originally earmarked for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
According to investigators, following the full-scale invasion in early 2022, the Ministry of Digital Transformation hosted links to crypto wallets opened by the KUNA exchange on its website under the «Aid for Ukraine» initiative. Subsequently, the Ministry, the Ministry of Defense, and KUNA jointly decided to purchase strike drones from US-based NEANY Inc.
Based on a guarantee letter signed by then-Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, KUNA head Mykhailo Chobanyan transferred 150 BTC and 2,500 ETH (approximately $12.2 million) to the supplier. However, it was later revealed that the contract was never legally executed, as the Defense Ministry’s signatory lacked the authority to sign it.
While some funds sent to the exchange were later recovered, $1.23 million in Bitcoin (53.7 BTC) and $3.44 million in Ethereum (2,048 ETH) remain unrecovered.
Law enforcement identified that a portion of the donated crypto was routed through a WhiteBIT wallet functioning as a transaction «mixer.» Investigators traced the wallet to a Ukrainian citizen whose official declared income between 2021 and 2024 totaled just 37,400 UAH (approx. $900 USD).
Despite her low official earnings, bank records showed transactions totaling roughly 6.66 million UAH (~$160,000 USD). The funds were spent on luxury goods, international travel, and P2P transfers, with no evidence of volunteer or charitable activity found.
«Authorized representatives of the Ministry of Digital Transformation do not have access to this wallet and cannot manage the funds. An electronic request sent to the KUNA exchange remains unanswered,» the investigation documents state.
As part of the case, law enforcement executed a search warrant at the premises of attorney . During questioning, Frolov stated he briefly assisted in organizing donation drives for military supplies in early 2022, but ceased all involvement in March 2022 and had no role in signing procurement contracts.
Proceedings are currently active under Part 5, Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misappropriation or embezzlement of property through abuse of office on an especially large scale). No formal charges or notices of suspicion have been issued to date.