Case description
Former top officials of DTEK and the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC) are accused of illegally applying the Rotterdam+ formula to coal at Ukrainian TPPs. The state suffered more than UAH 38 billion in losses, while DTEK made excessive profits.
The Rotterdam+ formula is a methodology for calculating the wholesale cost of coal transported to Ukrainian TPPs from the ports in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Antwerp, the Netherlands. At the NEURC meeting in January 2016, the defendants in the case decided to apply the formula to the entire volume of coal of the same grade – 25.5 million tons, while the amount of Rotterdam coal was only 130 thousand tons annually. This resulted in over UAH 18 billion in losses in 2016-2017.
The formula remained in effect during 2018-2019, and end consumers continued to overpay for electricity. In two years, the state suffered another UAH 20 billion in losses, and a second episode was added to the case, in which officials who did nothing to cancel the Rotterdam+ formula were added to the list of defendants.
The defendants in the case are:
- Ivan Heliukh, former CEO of DTEK Grids,
- Borys Lisovyi, former Advisor to DTEK Skhidenergo,
- Dmytro Vovk, former NEURC Chairman,
- Oksana Kryvenko, former NEURC Chair,
- Volodymyr Butovskyi, former Head of the Energy Market Management Department at NEURC,
- Taras Revenko, former Deputy Head of the Energy Market Department at NEURC,
- Volodymyr Yevdokimov, former Director of SE Market Operator,
- Olena Antonova, Viktoriia Morozova, Ruslan Mashliakivskyi, Oleksandr Formahei and Dmytro Kovalenko,Yurii Holliak, Borys Tsyhanenko, former NEURC members.
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The actions of the defendants were classified under Article 364(2) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and some of the defendants were charged with Article 367(2) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – neglect of official duty.
Former NEURC Chairman Dmytro Vovk and department head Volodymyr Butovskyi have been on the wanted list since 2019, and they are being tried in absentia under a special procedure. Former NEURC members Borys Tsyhanenko and Yurii Holliak were released from criminal liability because the statute of limitations had expired.
The pre-trial investigation in the case lasted almost five years. The criminal proceedings were closed and reopened five times. The reasons included: the inability to prove the alleged UAH 19 billion in damages; the inability to establish the illegality of NEURC Resolution No. 289; the lack of evidence proving the defendants' guilt, the direct damage caused, or subsequent money laundering; and the expiration of the pre-trial investigation period. For more information about this issue, see in our material.
The case proceedings were split and consolidated multiple times. The most recent consolidation was carried out to enable joint consideration of the criminal case materials, based on the connection between the alleged offenses, alignment in the stages of court proceedings, and the identical composition of participants.
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