Case description
On February 18, 2022, the HACC acquitted 3 Ukrzaliznytsia officials—Petro Naumenko, Yurii Merkulov, and Lilia Petrenko. They were accused of unreasonably granting 14 companies preferential tariffs for cargo transportation.
According to the investigation, in 2014, Naumenko, former UZ Deputy Chair; Merkulov, Director of the Commercial Department of UZ; and Petrenko, Deputy Head of one of UZ's branches; influenced the UZ Tariff Commission to grant benefits to a number of companies.
In March 2014, officials as members of the Tariff Commission allegedly broke into the Tariff Commission's office, rummaged through documents and a company computer, and at a meeting of the Commission, the Russian Rosneft and 13 other companies were illegally added to the list of companies with benefits for cargo transportation. They were granted the benefits on the basis that they would fulfill the guaranteed volumes of transportation, but later the companies failed to do so. It was noted that, as a result of such fraud, UZ lost about USD 7 million in revenue.
The officials were charged with Article 28, part 2; Article 364, part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. However, the HACC did not find an offense in the actions of the defendants and found the NABU's evidence not very convincing, as Naumenko, Merkulov, and Petrenko acted within their authority. UZ's civil claim was also dismissed.
The appellate instance confirmed the acquittal of the first instance.
