The NABU and the SAPO accuse the former director of Ukrainian Ecological Investments SE, Oleksii Koval; the head of the municipal enterprise Odesmisksvitlo, which operates external-lighting electrical networks, Oleksandr Prokopets; the former deputy chief engineer of the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, Dmytro Sokolov; and others in a case concerning the attempted embezzlement of state funds allocated to Ukraine under the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The case also involves employees of Ukrekoresurs SE and members of the competitive bidding committee:

• Vadym Levchenko;
• Oksana Dobrylovska;
• Roman Kravchenko.

According to the investigation, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine was to implement a project to replace lighting fixtures at social infrastructure facilities with LED lighting using Kyoto Protocol funds.

At the same time, the pre-trial investigation established that officials of the state enterprise responsible for organizing the procurement, in collusion with representatives of private companies, set up a scheme to misappropriate these funds.

In November 2015, tenders were announced for a total of more than UAH 783 million, and as a result a significant portion of the contracts — worth more than UAH 480 million — went to an enterprise with signs of fictitiousness.

The procurements were accompanied by a simulation of competition. Interconnected companies took part in the bidding, submitting coordinated bids — one at a slightly higher price, the other with formal deficiencies in its documents. In a number of procedures, only these participants were admitted to evaluation, even though their bids did not meet the requirements of the tender documentation. In addition, the companies used identical document packages and the same material and technical resources, and opened accounts at the same bank within a minimal time interval, which indicates the coordinated nature of their actions.

The investigation believes that the participants did not plan to perform the work under the contracts, and that the funds received — in particular in the form of substantial advance payments — were to be transferred to the accounts of controlled enterprises with signs of fictitiousness and withdrawn from oversight.

According to a forensic economic examination, the potential losses amount to around UAH 336 million, while the total sum that they attempted to misappropriate exceeds UAH 480 million.

The actions of the participants in the scheme were classified under Article 191(5) and Article 366(1) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Levchenko and Sokolov have been put on the wanted list.

According to the SAPO, two individuals have already been convicted within this case — A. Sliepchenko and O. Bezpala — for fictitious entrepreneurship (Article 205(1) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).