Supreme Court invalidated illegal agreement that allowed to embezzle UAH 300 million of “Energorynok”
The Supreme Court supported the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) in invalidating the loan agreement between Tokmak Solar Energy LLC and Company Prima-Trans LLC. This agreement contributed to the embezzlement of more than UAH 300 million of the State Enterprise “Energorynok”. On January 13, 2020, the Supreme Court upheld the decisions of previous courts in this process in favor of the National Bureau.
NABU filed the suit to the Commercial Court of Zaporizhzhia Region in November 2018 on the basis of the materials of the pre-trial investigation. NABU Detectives started the pre-trial investigation in the fall of 2017. The investigation revealed that based on fictitious documents on commissioning the power plant complex with the generation of solar electricity, the private company received a higher “green tariff” almost a year earlier than the actual construction of the plant. “Energorynok” SE was forced to overpay illegally more than UAH 300 million during four years. Considering that the “green” tariff for the complex is set up to January 1, 2030, the amount of losses from such activities could be about UAH 1.7 billion.
In March 2019, the trial court granted the claim of the National Bureau. In October 2019, the Central Commercial Court of Appeal agreed with this decision. Now the Supreme Court supported the same position. The decision of the Supreme Court is final and creates the preconditions for the refunding of illegally received funds.
At the same time, it is not possible to bring to justice the persons involved in the abovementioned scheme due to the fact that the criminal proceeding, under which the described crime was investigated, was closed in May 2019.
This happened after determining investigative jurisdiction over the National Police in December 2018. Contrary to the requirements of Article 216 of the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine, which determines the investigation of the specified type of crimes by the NABU Detectives (Part 5 of Article 191, Part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
The National Bureau looking forward to review this decision by the Prosecutor General.
Photo: finbalance.com.ua