The Security Service and the National Police have dismantled a large-scale scheme to embezzle state funds from JSC NEK Ukrenergo. As a result of the operation, fraudsters who misappropriated funds from the national company through electricity procurement schemes have been exposed.

Between 2022 and 2025 alone, the suspects’ illegal activities caused losses to the state amounting to UAH 447 mln (USD 10.1 mln).

According to the investigation, six individuals acting as part of an organised group were involved in the scheme. Among them are the heads of Kyiv and Kharkiv-based companies that supply electricity to industrial consumers.

To operate the scheme, its participants underreported projected electricity consumption figures by end-users to Ukrenergo.

These actions led to a significant negative imbalance with JSC NEK Ukrenergo. In reality, electricity was supplied to consumers, but payment for it was not actually made to Ukrenergo.

At the same time, the scheme’s participants received payment from their users for the entire volume of electricity consumed, which came from Ukraine’s unified power grid.

The group funneled the resulting ‘difference’ into the shadow economy through controlled firms, converted it into cash, and distributed it among themselves.

After the companies accumulated bad debt to JSC NEK Ukrenergo, these business entities ceased their activities in the electricity trading sector, but the ‘client base’ consisting of the relevant consumers was transferred to the next controlled company.

During 26 searches of the suspects’ homes and business premises, the investigators seized smartphones, computer equipment, seals, documents, and notes containing evidence of the crimes.

Six participants in the schemes have been notified of suspicion in connection with the crimes committed under several Articles of the CCU:

• 27.3, 27.5, 191.5 (organisation and aiding and abetting in the embezzlement or misappropriation of property through abuse of official position, committed on a particularly large scale or by an organised group).

The investigation is ongoing to bring all those responsible to justice. The perpetrators face up to 12 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.

The operation was carried out under the procedural supervision of the the Prosecutor General’s Office.