The National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), together with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), exposed a criminal organisation whose activities caused the state losses of UAH 967 million. The crime took place in 2014-2018, the NABU said.
In 2014, the court seized 97,000 tonnes of oil products imported into Ukraine in violation of the law. The investigation believes that one of the oil businessmen and a top official of the presidential administration decided to take possession of the oil products.
"They created a criminal organisation (CO) and managed to transfer oil products to a state-owned enterprise, where they appointed controlled persons to senior positions," the NABU said.
The state-owned enterprise then sold the seized raw materials at reduced prices to a company controlled by the organiser of the scheme. At the same time, the funds that this company paid only partially were transferred to the accounts of other controlled entities, and the state budget did not receive a single hryvnya.
"The total amount of losses is UAH 967 million," the NABU added.
The suspects are:
a former top official of the presidential administration of Ukraine (apparently, this is the acting head of the presidential administration of Ukraine, Serhiy Pashynskyy),
co-organiser of a criminal organization,
an entrepreneur, co-organiser of a criminal organization,
four members of the criminal organisation.
The actions are classified under Part 1 of Article 255 and Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code.
In the video, the NABU explained that the companies of an oligarch during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych (Serhiy Kurchenko) illegally imported oil products into Ukraine at the then exchange rate to the sum of UAH 2 billion. After Yanukovych's regime was overthrown, the oligarch fled, and the court seized the fuels and lubricants.
The NABU says that one of the oil businessmen, who had the "right connections" in the presidential administration, allegedly developed a scheme to seize the seized fuel. To commit the crime, according to the investigation, he involved his business partner, who was an official of the presidential administration - judging by the footage, it is Serhiy Pashynskyy.
"In order to develop and adopt" the necessary legislation "for the transfer of the seized property to the controlled state enterprise", Pashynskyy appointed the wife of the businessman-co-organiser (Serhiy Tyshchenko and Olena Tyshchenko) of the scheme to a senior position in the presidential administration.
This woman ensured the development and adoption of a government resolution approving an alternative procedure for the sale of material evidence in the wording that facilitated the scheme. The alternative implementation scheme never came into force, but the organisers moved on to the next plan and created a criminal organisation, according to the NABU.
The investigation says that the suspects found a state-owned enterprise that existed only on paper and had no conditions for storing oil products. The top official then ensured that the seized fuel was transferred to this state-owned enterprise and facilitated the appointment of members of the criminal organisation as managers. The state-owned enterprise opened accounts in a private bank owned by the co-organiser of the scheme. All transactions were conducted through this bank.
During one of the conversations, he instructed the director of the state-owned enterprise under his control to manage the accounts.
The top official, according to the NABU, involved a battalion of volunteers and criminals to gain control over the storage facilities for oil products, and then began "actual theft of oil products" for their further sale. To complete the criminal intent, the businessman engaged a controlled company. The state-owned enterprise sold the oil products at reduced prices. The cost of fuel was not transferred to the deposit account of the pre-trial investigation bank, as it should have been. Instead, the funds were withdrawn to the accounts of controlled business entities, and the funds did not go to the budget.
- Former MP Serhiy Pashynskyy said today that searches were conducted in connection with the so-called Serhiy Kurchenko fuel case.
- Companies of oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko close to the fugitive president were suspected of misappropriating petrol from Naftogaz. The Prosecutor-General's Office reported that the court had confiscated 100,000 tonnes of fuel from Kurchenko's companies. Kurchenko was suspected of creating a criminal organisation and legalising the proceeds of crime through the sale of 800,000 tonnes of oil products, Radio Liberty reported. The oligarch then fled abroad.
- In July 2015, the army received the first batch of Kurchenko's fuel.