The HACC approved a plea agreement and found Petro Vovchuk, former chairman of the board of the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine (SFGCU), guilty of organizing the sale of the state company's grain at understated prices for the benefit of structures belonging to Russian businessman Aleksei Fedorychev.

According to the investigation, Petro Vovchuk, chairman of the board of SFGCU PJSC, together with his adviser Anatolii Zavadskyi, entered into a conspiracy with Russian oligarch Aleksei Fedorychev, who controlled a number of international grain-trading companies. The essence of the arrangement was to organize the sale of state grain at understated prices in order to obtain an unlawful gain. To this end, the officials arranged for contracts to be concluded between the SFGCU and companies linked to Fedorychev, which acted as intermediaries in the subsequent resales.

Under the terms of these agreements, the state company's grain was shipped toward Saudi Arabia on payment after shipment terms. This approach did not conform to common market rules and created the risk of non-payment for the products supplied. In some cases the goods were actually shipped, but the money never reached the SFGCU's accounts. In this way, the companies controlled by Fedorychev received significant volumes of grain from the state grain corporation without proper payment, which caused losses to the state enterprise.

The first stage of the scheme was carried out when the parties signed contracts for the supply of 75,000 tons of barley at $209 per ton, although the market price at the time was over $215. As a result of this manipulation, more than $667,000 was to remain in the accounts of the intermediary company SOMERTON, intended for the management of SFGCU. The grain was successfully loaded onto the vessel PEACE ARK, and the state was effectively shortchanged by a significant sum from the very start of the cooperation.

Four more large contracts were then concluded, for a total of over $72 million. The key condition was a payment scheme that allowed those involved to obtain title to the grain and resell it to end buyers before it had actually been paid for to the state corporation.

According to the prosecution, the perpetrators in fact had no intention of paying for the products they received. The state grain was resold to a Saudi Arabian company and shipped out aboard the vessels Tonic Sea, Corinna, and others. As a result of these manipulations, SFGCU lost more than 273,000 tons of barley and 22,000 tons of wheat. The total losses caused to the state through this fraud amounted to over UAH 797 million.

A separate episode involved the receipt of an unlawful benefit by Vovchuk himself and his adviser. They arranged with Fedorychev a disguised form of bribe: grain from the SFGCU was to be sold at an understated price to a company controlled by Vovchuk and Zavadskyi. This "their" firm would then resell the same goods to a structure linked to Fedorychev, but at a considerably higher price.

The difference between the understated purchase and the resale came to around $660,000. According to the investigation, it was precisely this sum that constituted the unlawful benefit, which the SFGCU officials divided among themselves. In exchange for the bribe received, they secured for the Russian businessman the sale of grain at an understated price with deferred payment, which led to the embezzlement of the SFGCU's property.

Ultimately, the implementation of this scheme caused the state, represented by SFGCU, losses of at least UAH 45 million.

The actions of SFGCU board chairman Petro Vovchuk were classified under Article 364(2) and Article 368(4) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Back in 2017, NABU placed Vovchuk on the wanted list. In October 2019, he was found and detained in Lithuania. There he sought asylum but was refused. After the extradition decision was issued, he tried to appeal it, citing the risks associated with Russia's full-scale invasion, but the courts did not accept this argument either. In March 2023, Vovchuk was extradited to Ukraine.

After his detention, he agreed to a deal with the investigation. The text of the verdict in his case is classified. However, according to the prosecution, the court sentenced Vovchuk to five years' imprisonment without confiscation of property, with a three-year ban on holding certain positions and a fine of UAH 17,000. He was also given a three-year probationary period. Vovchuk's verdict is not the only one in the case concerning abuses at the SFGCU.

Plea agreements were also reached with Vitalii Korniienko, owner of the company used to receive the bribe, and Oleksii Venetskyi, head of an SFGCU directorate, who signed grain supply contracts with Fedorychev's structures. Both also received probation instead of actual imprisonment.

Soon after Vovchuk, his adviser Anatolii Zavadskyi also received his verdict. The HACC sentenced him to ten years' imprisonment with confiscation of all his property. The HACC Appeals Chamber, however, reduced the sentence to 8 years.

Separately, the case of Dmytro Dobrii, a representative of a company belonging to Aleksei Fedorychev, is ongoing. The Russian oligarch himself is on the wanted list and is hiding in Monaco. In July 2024, at SAPO's request, Italian law enforcement seized his assets worth around €41 million, including a castle. Fedorychev has also been under sanctions since 2022.