The HACC approved plea agreements with Arkadii Kirman, a manager at the state-owned enterprise Ukrtransnaftoproduct, and Oleksandr Buchynskyi, director of the company UkrOilProduct. They were found guilty of participating in a criminal organization and of acting as accomplices in the misappropriation of property on an especially large scale. The case concerns the misappropriation of oil products seized as part of proceedings concerning the SEPEK group of companies.

“Kurchenko's oil products” are oil products seized in 2014 in the case of Serhii Kurchenko, owner of the East European Fuel-Energy Company (SEPEK); they were stored at the Odesa Oil Refinery, Kherson Oil Transshipment, and the oil depot in Vasylkiv. They were planned to be sold under the “interrupted transit” scheme: legally, they were to pass through Ukraine, but instead, they were to be sold here.

The investigation established that in 2014–2018, a criminal organization operated in Ukraine, headed by Serhii Pashynskyi, then head of the Presidential Administration, and businessman Serhii Tyshchenko. The aim of the individuals in the case was to take possession of nearly 97,000 tons of oil products and misappropriate the funds from their sale.

Read more about how the scheme worked in the article at the link.

The role of Kirman and Buchynskyi was to ensure the transfer of the oil products to SE Ukrtransnaftoproduct for safekeeping and sale. In particular, Arkadii Kirman ensured that the fuel was sold at prices substantially below market prices. The main buyer was UkrOilProduct LLC, headed by Oleksandr Buchynskyi.

The funds obtained from reselling the oil products at market prices were accumulated in accounts at Fortuna Bank, which was controlled by the organizers. They were subsequently used to finance the activities of the criminal organization, and after the bank went bankrupt in 2017, it became impossible to return the money to the state budget. As a result of these actions, the total losses amounted to UAH 967 million (the figure cited earlier was UAH 817 million, taking into account the excise duty paid).

When the agreements were being approved, the prosecutor emphasized that without the assistance of Kirman and Buchynskyi in signing contracts at understated prices, it would have been impossible to carry out the overall criminal plan. The prosecutor's key argument in support of concluding the agreements was that Kirman and Buchynskyi had given detailed incriminating testimony against other individuals in the case. The defense emphasized the accused's full agreement with the crimes they were charged with, their sincere remorse, and their active assistance to the investigation in exposing other participants in the scheme.

In December 2025, the HACC approved the agreements of Arkadii Kirman and Oleksandr Buchynskyi. The court found them guilty of committing criminal offenses under Article 255(1) and under Article 27(5) and Article 28(4) in conjunction with Article 191(5) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The court sentenced each of them to 7 years of imprisonment. Under Article 75 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, they were released from serving the main sentence with a probationary period of 1 year. They were also deprived of the right to hold managerial positions for a period of 3 years.

In addition, under the terms of the agreement, Kirman and Buchynskyi must each reimburse UAH 500,000 to the state budget within 30 days of the verdict entering into force.