A court has arrested the corporate rights of three companies owned by former People's Front MP Ihor Kotvitskyy and Russian oligarch Pavlo (Pavel) Fuks. Law-enforcement officers found that these companies had misappropriated the subsoil of the Sakhalin oil and gas field.
The State Bureau of Investigation reported the seizure of the companies' corporate rights.
In particular, the assets of the following companies were arrested:
Sakhalinske LLC;
Sirius-1 LLC;
East Europe Petroleum LLC.
The rights were transferred to the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA).
In February 2023, the State Bureau of Investigation, together with the SBU, exposed the illegal activities of former high-ranking officials who received illegal excess profits from gas production from state subsoil. The amount of damage to the state may reach hundreds of millions of hryvnyas.
Law enforcers conducted searches at the residence of a former Member of Parliament of Ukraine of the VIII convocation. He, by prior conspiracy with officials of Nadra Ukrayiny, the State Service of Geology and Mineral Resources, Sakhalinske LLC, and commercial entities, actually misappropriated state mineral resources in the period 2003-2022.
It is noted that under the "patronage" of the former MP, state structures granted special permits for gas production in blatant violation of procedures. As a result, the raw materials were much cheaper on paper, and the actual production volumes at the state-owned field were also underestimated. The difference was pocketed by the schemers.
In particular, according to the investigation, due to the illegal activities of officials of Nadra Ukrayiny and a number of commercial entities, Ukraine de facto lost the right to the Sakhalinske oil and gas field in Kharkiv Region.
This is despite the fact that more than UAH 1 billion was spent from the state budget on the development of this field. According to geological exploration data, gas deposits at this site amount to at least 15bn cu.m.
Investigative actions are ongoing within the framework of criminal proceedings initiated over abuse of office that caused grave consequences (part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
Procedural guidance is provided by the Office of the Prosecutor-General of Ukraine.
In February, the SBU and the State Bureau of Investigation conducted searches at the properties of former MP Kotvitskyy and Russian oligarch Pavel Fuks.
In June 2021, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacted the National Security and Defence Council's decision to impose sanctions on Fuks, Firtash and Putin's entourage.
After the NSDC sanctions were imposed, Fuks said he was not doing business in Russia and renounced his Russian citizenship in 2017. However, the Obozrevatel media outlet reported that Fuks retained his Russian citizenship, and after receiving a Ukrainian passport, he also received a new Russian passport.