NABU, SAPO and SBU announced suspicion of the former people's deputy and his business partner for misappropriation of petroleum products and causing almost UAH 1 billion in losses to the state
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the Security Service of Ukraine, based on materials from the State Audit Service, announced suspicion of former MP Sergei Pashinsky, his business partner and four of their accomplices.
This was reported by the press services of law enforcement agencies.
Pashinsky and the company are suspected of misappropriation and sale of 97 thousand tons of petroleum products confiscated by the state, which were supposed to be used for the needs of the army. As a result of these transactions, which were completed in 2014-2017, the state budget suffered damage of almost 1 billion hryvnia.
Suspicion was declared under articles 191 and 255 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine
In 2014, the state confiscated almost 100 thousand tons of petroleum products from the structures of Sergei Kurchenko, an oligarch from the time of Yanukovych, who fled from Ukraine to the Russian Federation. As the investigation established, with the help of the political lobby of the former people's deputy, these petroleum products were transferred for sale to a specialized state-owned enterprise in order to fill the state budget. At that time, this state-owned enterprise was headed by executives controlled by the ex-deputy’s business partner.
At the direction of the defendants in the case, officials of this state-owned enterprise facilitated the sale of almost 100 thousand tons of petroleum products at significantly reduced prices to a group of companies owned by the ex-deputy’s business partner.
According to the investigation, these petroleum products were then sold at gas stations of this group of companies and other network gas stations, and the income received was concentrated among the beneficiaries of the scheme.
To create the appearance that the seized oil products were transferred to the needs of the Ministry of Defense, the state-owned enterprise carried out the corresponding supplies on a commercial basis, for which the Ministry of Defense paid in full. But the municipal government received only 1.6% of the so-called. "Kurchenko's petroleum products." All the rest were petroleum products purchased from the same group of companies, which, in turn, purchased them in Russia and Belarus. At the same time, the defendants sold the same range of goods to their group of companies at a price half as expensive as to the Armed Forces.
According to the investigation, the former people's deputy provided political cover for these transactions, using his influence and administrative resources in relation to state enterprises, judicial and law enforcement agencies involved in the confiscation of these oil products.
In 2020, the court decided on special confiscation in favor of the state of the above-mentioned funds and the funds received from their sale. However, according to the investigation, the entire volume of petroleum products and all the proceeds from their sale had already been appropriated by members of the criminal organization by that time, and the state budget received losses in the amount of at least 967 million UAH.
The pre-trial investigation continues. The perpetrators face up to 12 years in prison.
At the same time, former people's deputy Sergei Pashinsky said that this morning SBU and NABU officers came to his house. Investigative actions, according to him, relate to the transfer of so-called Kurchenko fuel to the state.
Pashinsky recalled that almost 100,000 oil products owned by oligarch Kurchenko were transferred to state oil operators in 2014. In 2015, Pashinsky appealed to the president with a request to cover the army’s fuel shortage with this fuel.
Since March 2022, I have been heading the National Association of Defense Industry Enterprises of Ukraine. There is no need to search or search me - during this time I have never left Ukraine. Enterprises participating in the Association produce drones, artillery, armored vehicles, ammunition, electronic warfare stations and radars. “Every day we experience the death of loved ones, Russian bombings, audits of the State Administration of Ukraine. As the Chairman of the Association and coordinator of many defense programs, I have only a request to the investigators - do not distract me with Kurchenko, please,” he commented.
Let us recall that Sergei Pashinsky is a former people’s deputy of Ukraine, and from March 5 to June 10, 2014, he temporarily served as head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine. He also previously served as deputy chairman of the faction and chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defense.
The day before, in the summer of 2023, the New York Times (NYT) published an investigation in which it was stated that a company associated with Pashinsky, suspected of corruption before the full-scale Russian invasion, allegedly became the largest private arms supplier to the government in Kyiv at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. aggression in February 2022.
As the NYT wrote, Pashinsky heads the Ukrainian Arms Trade Association, and with the help of his company, Kyiv was able to receive the first batches of weapons for the defense of the country until help arrived from Western partners.
The publication claims that the “scheme” for purchasing shells, balls and bombs throughout Europe involved the resale of weapons to a large number of intermediaries, which resulted in a significant increase in price before the weapons reached the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. As indicated in the investigation, sales of Pashinsky’s company “Ukrainian Armored Vehicles” amounted to a record over $350 million in 2022, compared to $2.8 million the year before the war.
