Three years ago, in the fall of 2021, Alliance Bank issued guarantees to a company from Igor Kolomoisky’s entourage, United Energy, for the purchase of electricity from the state-owned Ukrenergo.
Three years later, this transaction of an individual small private bank almost turned into a disaster of national proportions. The Ukrainian energy industry is walking on a razor's edge over the abyss, facing a real risk of being left without imports due to personnel changes inspired by the financial institution, so as not to pay off the debt to Ukrenergo for UAH 1.7 billion. These seemingly distant factors demonstrate how sensitive complex economic and political systems are to the slightest changes in “settings.”
Letter of misfortune
Political and international scandals do not subside in the Ukrainian energy sector. The Energy Community, the organization responsible for creating a single energy market in the European Union and partner countries, warned that NPC Ukrenergo could be decertified. Experts in Ukraine have suggested that this could negatively impact our country's ability to import electricity. This means that at critical moments for the energy system, which is under constant risk of knocking out part of its capacity due to Russian missile attacks, this could put the country on the brink of survival.
In a letter to the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, the director of the EU secretariat indicated that Ukraine faced this prospect due to problems with corporate governance at Ukrenergo. After the voluntary dismissal of the former CEO of the company, Vladimir Kudrytsky, at the end of the summer, some of the independent members of the supervisory board left Ukrenergo. Thus, there is no one to guarantee the independence of the state-owned enterprise from the government. And if a company does not meet management standards, it does not meet the requirements of the Community and the relevant EU directives. The letter notes that Ukraine has until December 9 to resolve personnel issues and restore balance in the supervisory board.
The media wrote a lot about the causes of chaos in the energy sector in general, and constant turbulence in Ukrenergo in particular. In short, the main reason is the struggle for cash flows for the restoration of the energy system, which are already coming or will be coming in the future from Western partners. Instead of a transparent distribution of funds, which was demonstrated by the previous Ukrenergo team using the example of the construction of protective structures, interested officials, among whom specialized media named Energy Minister German Galushchenko and ex-Deputy Head of the Office of the President Rostislav Shurma, allegedly wanted to transfer these processes to a “gray zone.” .
According to analysts, they have been rocking the chair under Kudritsky since the end of 2021. However, the war prevented the completion of the plan. And when, literally on the eve of the invasion, Ukrenergo did the incredible and, disconnecting from Russia, switched the energy system to Europe, this temporarily provided the company’s CEO with political immunity. However, this did not last long, and stories with signs of customization gradually began to appear in the information space - about allegedly illegal enrichment, the purchase of bulletproof vests at inflated prices, the allegedly illegal purchase of air conditioners for technical premises, etc.
Blank guarantee
Informationally, one of the key ones was the accusation of theft of company funds in a criminal case involving Alliance Bank and the trader United Energy. In the fall of 2021, the Alliance issued a guarantee for the purchase of electricity to the trader. The amount is more than 1.5 billion UAH. was clearly unaffordable for the bank, since it exceeded all possible NBU standards. However, the Alliance was no stranger: at that time the bank was already not paying on guarantees presented by a number of state-owned companies. Therefore, this time “nothing foreshadowed trouble.”
But March 2022 has arrived. United Energy did not pay for electricity and Ukrenergo billed Alliance for UAH 1.7 billion. including fines and penalties. The bank refused to pay. Subsequently, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine opened and investigated proceedings for the theft of state funds by a bank and an energy trader from Kolomoisky’s entourage. The chairman of the Alliance board has been put on the international wanted list. (And which will later appear in the case of a $200 thousand bribe to NABU detectives for changing the jurisdiction). Obviously, this was impossible to do without the consent of the key shareholders - the nominal Alexander Sosis and the real Pavel Shcherban. The latter, as the media wrote, is close to the already mentioned Rostislav Shurma and can act as a “frontman” of the latter’s business in certain industries.
Corporate conflict with the bank’s reluctance to pay UAH 1.7 billion. (because this will lead to its rapid bankruptcy) probably became a trigger for political forces that intended to change the management of Ukrenergo. Allegations of theft of public funds are too loud to be ignored. In addition, with the appearance of Alliance Bank in this story, which had a vested interest in not repaying the debt, it almost automatically resolved the question of who would organize information support. From the publications of numerous bloggers, especially during the period when NABU brought a criminal case of theft to court, it is clear that they not only throw mud at Vladimir Kudrytsky in their publications, but also openly shield the Alliance Bank.
Switched to the courts
When the campaign reached its information peak and its goal - to remove the CEO of Ukrenergo, albeit with a scandal - was fulfilled, the Alliance intensified its work with the judiciary. First, the Economic Court of Kyiv, and subsequently the Northern Economic Court of Appeal, recognized the guarantee to United Energy as non-repayable. This is despite the fact that the day before the Supreme Court gave recommendations on a completely opposite practice (according to the principle “guarantees must be repaid in any case”), and also despite the fact that the argument of the bank’s lawyers was based on documents issued after the filing of the claim. At the same time, an economic process is also unfolding, in which Ukrenergo, in a separate lawsuit, demands the repayment of a debt of UAH 1.7 billion. On October 14, an application was unexpectedly filed to challenge the judge of the Cassation Economic Court of the Supreme Court, who should hear the cassation appeal of Ukrenergo in this case.
Representatives of Alliance Bank, without hiding, talk about their “triumph” in the financial and legal markets, unequivocally nodding towards their “high patrons”. Information debt 1.7 billion UAH. it is planned to “write off” Kudrytsky as the previous CEO of Ukrenergo. Although, in fact, these are taxpayer funds that it would be advisable to use to prepare for the heating season, protect and repair infrastructure on the eve of winter, no matter how warm weather forecasters predict it.
This approach looks especially cynical in conditions when the bank, namely its decision on the eve of a full-scale invasion, became the locomotive that brought the situation in the energy sector to its current point. When the risk of being left without imports during the heating season was very high (although it has not yet materialized), and all many years of efforts to integrate the Ukrainian energy system into the European network can be thrown into the failure of the unhealthy ambitions of individual officials.
Whether this earthquake will lead to sobering up of the initiators of such dangerous turbulence will be clear in a month and a half, when the deadline for personnel stabilization at Ukrenergo passes and when the courts will finally, without rose-colored glasses, be able to consider the case of the robbery of taxpayers by the private bank Alliance.
