Case description
The NABU and the SAPO accused Serhii Svichenko, former director of Nadra Geocenter LLC, and Roman Huminichenko, former director of Kyivgasenergo Trading House LLC, of participating in the “gas scheme” of former MP Oleksandr Onyshchenko who had fled Ukraine.
The case of former MP Onyshchenko is one of the most high-profile that the NABU has investigated, and it began in 2015. Detectives believe that from 2013 to 2016, he organized a scheme to sell Ukrgasvydobuvannya’s gas to his companies using fictitious exchanges at reduced prices. The latter sold gas to consumers at market prices, and the scheme operated on the difference in cost.
The scheme's participants earned more than UAH 1.6 billion, while Ukrgasvydobuvannya suffered more than UAH 740 million in losses. The scheme involved 29 people, including former head of the SFS Roman Nasirov and Kharkiv judge Tetiana Denysiuk, in addition to Svichenko and Huminichenko.
According to the investigation, Svichenko submitted applications to commodity exchanges controlled by Onyshchenko indicating a lower price for natural gas. Svichenko, like Huminichenko, was the head of one of Onyshchenko’s companies that was awarded in the fictitious auctions for the sale of Ukrgasvydobuvannya’s gas.
Both defendants had been hiding in Russia for a long time. Svichenko was first detained on the Ukrainian-Russian border in 2016, and later disappeared after his house arrest had expired. He was detained in January 2021 at a checkpoint and taken into custody the next day. Huminichenko left for Russia back in 2016 and had been on the wanted list since then until May 2022, when he was discovered at a checkpoint.
Svichenko is accused of committing criminal offenses under Article 255, part 1; Article 191, part 5; Article 366, part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and Huminichenko’s actions are classified under Article 255, part 1; Article 191, part 5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
On June 15, 2023, the HACC consolidated the proceedings against Svichenko and Huminichenko, the consideration of the case on the merits is ongoing.
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