Energy corruption during war: organized group exposed

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, in cooperation with the Security Service of Ukraine, have uncovered an organized group whose activities caused nearly UAH 60 million in damages to NPC Ukrenergo during martial law.

As established, in April 2022, a former deputy head of the Kharkiv Regional Council (a deputy of the Kharkiv Regional Council at the time of the crime) created an organized group to misappropriate electricity from the Unified Energy System of Ukraine and launder funds from its sale.

The group included the head of a private company as an executor and its founder as an accomplice, while the official acted as the company’s investor.

The group preemptively purchased three companies with licenses to supply electricity. In June 2022, these companies received electricity from Ukraine's Unified Energy System and transferred it to the controlled company for sale to end consumers. However, the financial liability for the received electricity remained with the aforementioned intermediary companies.

The funds from the sale of electricity were never received by NPC Ukrenergo. To conceal their origin, the funds were transferred to the accounts of financial companies under the guise of loan repayments. For a fee of 0.5 percent of the transfer amount, the financial companies redirected the funds to other controlled companies, which then transferred them to a non-resident company registered in Bulgaria.

As a result of this scheme, NPC Ukrenergo suffered damages amounting to UAH 58.44 million.

Currently, three individuals have been notified of suspicion:

• the former deputy head and ex-deputy of the Kharkiv Regional Council;
• the director of a private company;
• the founder of a private company.