The Attorney General’s Office is investigating the possible misappropriation of over $45 million in donations for drones: what is known

The Prosecutor General’s Office is conducting a pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings regarding the possible misappropriation of charitable aid that was received on cryptocurrency wallets to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to the international detective agency Absolution, this involves funds in the amount of more than $45 million.

According to information released by detectives, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022, the Ministry of Digital Transformation posted links to cryptocurrency wallets opened by the KUNA crypto exchange on its official website to collect donations for the needs of the Ukrainian army.

Initially, the crypto fund operated on a subdomain of the Ministry of Digital Transformation website, and later a separate resource, Aid for Ukraine, was created for it. Currently, the old address is being redirected to the United24 platform. In addition to the Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, his deputy Oleksandr Bornyakov was responsible for the implementation of the project.

Drone Purchase and Cryptocurrency Transfer

The investigation established that later the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Ministry of Defense and the KUNA crypto exchange decided to cooperate with the American company NEANY Inc. for the purchase of attack drones.

After that, the head of the KUNA exchange Mykhailo Chobanyan transferred 150 BTC and 2,500 ETH, worth a total of about $12.2 million, to the supplier’s account. The basis for the transfer was a letter of guarantee, which, according to the investigation, was signed by the then Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov.

However, as noted in the criminal proceedings, the contract between the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and NEANY Inc. was never concluded, since the document on the Ukrainian side was not signed by an authorized person.

Part of the assets was not returned

According to the investigation, the crypto assets were sent to the FTX.us exchange wallet, after which part of the funds were returned to KUNA.

At the same time, the following remained unreturned:

53.7787 BTC (approximately $1.23 million);
2048 ETH (approximately $3.44 million).
The investigation is checking the movement of funds through WhiteBIT

The criminal proceedings also note that the charitable funds were subsequently transferred to the WhiteBIT exchange wallet, which the investigation considers as a possible “mixer” and associates with a citizen of Ukraine.

According to official data, her declared income for 2021–2024 was only UAH 37.4 thousand, while an analysis of bank accounts, in particular Monobank, indicates the receipt of about UAH 6.66 million.

According to the investigation, the purpose of the payments included expenses for the purchase of branded items, foreign travel and P2P transfers. Law enforcement officers have not yet established signs of volunteer activity.

As of December 12, 2025, this crypto wallet had 10,145 BTC remaining, which was then estimated at approximately $936,000. The last transaction from the wallet was recorded on April 14, 2025, although the receipt of funds continued after that.

The case materials indicate that authorized representatives of the Ministry of Digital Transformation do not have access to this crypto wallet and cannot manage the funds. An electronic request to the KUNA exchange, according to the investigation, remained unanswered.

Searches and interrogations

As part of the criminal proceedings, law enforcement officers also conducted searches at the home of lawyer Oleksandr Frolov.

During interrogation, he reported that after the start of the full-scale war, he was involved in organizing the collection of funds for the purchase of weapons and equipment for the Ukrainian army. According to him, communication between the participants was carried out mainly via messengers; he personally did not know any of the participants in the process.

Frolov also stated that after March 3, 2022, he no longer participated in fundraising, concluded contracts or paid for equipment, and cannot recall the details of subsequent events.

Investigation underway

A pre-trial investigation is being conducted in criminal proceedings No. 12025000000000407 on the grounds of a crime under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (embezzlement or embezzlement of property in especially large amounts).

As of now, investigative actions are ongoing. No person has yet been notified of suspicion in the said criminal proceedings.

Important: the circumstances set forth are data from the pre-trial investigation and the version of the investigation. The final legal assessment will be established by the court after the completion of the case.