The National Antiсorruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has put Ihor Kolomoyskyy's former business associate Mykhaylo Kiperman on the wanted list. He and two other people suspected of involvement in organising the scheme to steal money from Ukrenergo are also wanted, the NABU said.
"The National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine is looking for suspects in criminal proceedings No. 52022000000000091 dated 03.05.2022 - Mykhaylo Kiperman, Dmytro Kondrashov and Yuliya Frolova," it said.
On 11 January 2024, the NABU and the SAPO exposed a scheme to seize electricity from NPC Ukrenergo and legalise the money received from its sale.
The amount of losses exceeds UAH 716 million.
The person who organised the fraud, an ex-official of the company, the chairman of the bank's board and a director of a private company were served with notices of suspicion.
According to the investigation, in March 2022, United Energy LLC, at that time one of the largest traders in Ukraine, purchased electricity worth more than UAH 716 million from NPC Ukrenergo. Despite its debts to the company, the head of the relevant department of Ukrenergo did not stop the sale. At the same time, one of the commercial banks acted as a guarantor of payment, and the decision to issue the guarantee was made by the chairman of the board alone and in violation of the procedure.
Later, the electricity was sold to real market participants, and the proceeds were transferred to the accounts of a foreign company controlled by the organiser of the scheme, who is also a business partner of an individual mentioned in the NABU and SAPO case on the embezzlement of PrivatBank funds.
NPC Ukrenergo never received the money for the electricity it supplied. When it turned to the guarantor bank with a request to repay the debt, its request was denied.
Thanks to the timely actions of the NABU and the SAPO, more than UAH 700 million was seized from the accounts of the companies involved in the scheme.
In addition, funds on the accounts of the company controlled by the organiser of the scheme in two European countries were blocked.
At the same time, attempts were made to lift this blocking: interested parties sent fake letters on behalf of detectives and prosecutors.
In addition to the Ukrenergo scheme, in June last year, the SBU and the BES uncovered another large-scale scheme to misappropriate UAH 600 million from Ukrtatnafta, involving Kolomoyskyy's business partner. At Kiperman's initiative, almost UAH 600 million in hryvnya equivalent was withdrawn from Ukrtatnafta's accounts.