The SSU and the NABU have uncovered a large-scale scheme of embezzlement of funds of the National Energy Company Ukrenergo. The former deputy chairman of Kharkiv Region Council, who was a member of the regional council at the time of the offense and is now hiding abroad, is suspected of organizing this scheme.

In April 2022, he and his accomplices organized a scheme to steal UAH 58.44 million worth of Ukrenergo’s electricity.

The deputy involved two accomplices: the founder and the director of a Kyiv private company that trades in energy.

Together, they set up three fictitious firms through which they received electricity from the United Energy System of Ukraine and sold it to end consumers.

None of these companies paid Ukrenergo for the electricity they received.

The organizer and his accomplices diverted the profits received from the consumers to ‘shadow’ under the guise of paying off debt obligations to affiliated companies.

These ‘funds paid as a debt’ were then transferred to the accounts of another entity registered in the Balkans.

According to the conclusions of the commission forensic economic examination, NEC Ukrenergo suffered losses in the amount of UAH 58.44 million (USD 1.3 mln) as a result of these actions.

The law enforcement agencies carried out searches of the director of the Kyiv-based company and served him a notice of suspicion, while the other two persons involved were notified of suspicion in absentia.

In particular, the former member of the regional council and the founder of the company who are hiding abroad, were declared suspects under the Articles of the CCU (in accordance with the offences each of them committed):

• 27.3, 27.5, 191.5 (organization and aiding in misappropriation, embezzlement or seizure of property by abuse of office, on a particularly large scale, by an organized group)
• 27.3, 209.3 (laundering of the proceeds of crime).

The actions of the detained director of a private company are qualified under Articles 191.5, 209.3 of the CCU. The measure of restraint is to be determined.

The investigation is ongoing. The suspects face up to 12 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.

The operation was conducted under the procedural supervision of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.