Head of the “Energomerezha Holding Company” extradited to Ukraine from Germany

On April 15, 2019, the Head of the Board of PrJSC “Energomerezha Holding Company”, suspected of causing 346 million UAH damage to the state, was extradited from Germany to Ukraine. The Detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) detained him at the Boryspil International Airport. On April 17, 2019, Solomyansky District Court of Kyiv chose for him a preventive measure in form of temporary custody with 7.01 million alternative bail.

PrJSC “Energomerezha Holding Company” is a company involved in the corruption scheme in the energy sector. The investigation of this crime was the first in the history of the National Bureau.

The NABU Detectives entered data into the Unified Register of the Pre-trial Investigations on December 4, 2015.

Six months later, in June 2016, the NABU Detectives collected enough evidence to give notice of suspicion to the Head of the Board of PrJSC “Energomerezha Holding Company” on committing crimes under Part 5 Article 191, Part 3 Article 27 Part 2 Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In June 2016, he was suspected on 196 million UAH public funds embezzlement, and abuse of office, resulted in 346 million UAH caused damage to the state.

The investigation revealed that official of “Energomerezha Holding Company” organized a scheme, according to which consumers of electricity, instead of paying to the supplier OJSC “Zaporizhzhiaoblenergo”, transferred funds to intermediary company “Energomerezha Holding Company”. This company had to transferred funds to the energy supplier. OJSC “Zaporizhzhiaoblenergo” received only 1.7 million UAH out of 346 million UAH. According to the agreements, “Energomerezha Holding Company” received from “Zaporizhzhiaoblenergo” the authority to claim debt from the State Enterprise "Zaporizhye Titanium and Magnesium Combine", the Limited Liability Company "Zaporizhye Titanium and Magnesium Combine", the OJSC "Dniprospetsstal". This illegal corrupt scheme operated in 2014-2015.

Due to the fact that location of the official was unknown, the notice of suspicion was given to him according to Article 278, Article 135 of the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine.

In June 2016, the Head of the Board of “Energomerezha Holding Company” was put on the national wanted list, in early 2017 — on the international wanted list.

In April 2018, the suspect was detained on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In April 2018, the NABU sent to the General Prosecutor`s Office (GPO) a petition for the extradition of the Head of the Board of “Energomerezha Holding Company” to Ukraine for criminal prosecution. The GPO sent the petition to the competent authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Almost a year later, in March 2019, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany gave a permission to extradite the Head of the Board of “Energomerezha Holding Company” to Ukraine.

During the period when the suspect was wanted, the NABU Detectives collected enough evidence to give a notice of suspicion to abovementioned official on committing other criminal corrupt offenses. Currently the NABU Detectives prepare a request to the Federal Republic of Germany to grant consent for the additional prosecution of Kriuchkov.

According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine a person is considered not-guilty in commission of crime and cannot be a subject to criminal punishment, until he or she is found guilty by the court.