Case description
The NABU and the SAPO suspect the former management of Ukrnafta and directors of a number of companies of embezzling more than UAH 13 billion from an oil and gas company. The case consists of two episodes that took place in 2015.
According to the pre-trial investigation, auctions for the sale of oil products were held in March-August 2015. The awarded participants, namely Prykarpattia-Naftotrade LLC, Techtradegroup LLC, Kotlas LLC, Halnafta LLC, and Harant-UTN LLC, were given the opportunity to buy oil from Ukrnafta. The value of the contracts amounted to UAH 10.7 billion.
According to the law, Ukrnafta could not supply the products without a full prepayment in advance. However, according to the NABU, the oil products were still delivered in advance, processed at the Kremenchuk Refinery, and subsequently sold.
In the second episode, in July 2015, Ukrnafta concluded 70 oil product sale and purchase agreements with Kotlas LLC with a total value of over UAH 3.06 billion. The money was spent, but Ukrnafta did not receive any oil products. The detectives claim that the money was transferred offshore through the aforementioned Kotlas LLC, and from there to VTF Avias LLC, and the final recipients were legal entities from Privat Group's orbit. It was then controlled by oligarch Ihor Kolomoiskyi and his business partner Hennadii Boholiubov.
.png)
The NABU and the SAPO suspect Oleksandr Kushch, former Chairman of Ukrnafta's Management Board; Natalia Kernytska, former Deputy Head of one of the departments; and Liudmyla Kyianytsia, former Head of one of Ukrnafta's departments, of fraud. In addition, Director of Prykarpattia-Naftotrade LLC Bohdan Zhuk, Director of Techtrade Group LLC Oleksandra Volovodenko, Director of Kotlas LLC Oleksandr Shal, Director of Halnafta LLC Petro Zvieriev and Director of Harant-UTN LLC Oleksandr Holub were served with suspicion notices.
All defendants in the case are charged with Article 191(5) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In December 2022, four suspects were put on the wanted list.
