NABU declared the suspicion to the ex-head of “Naftogaz” Kobolev in embezzlement of 229 million hryvnias

Anti-corruption authorities declared the former chairman of the board of Naftogaz of Ukraine Andriy Kobolev about the suspicion of embezzlement of over 229 million hryvnias.

This is reported by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU).

The investigation established that in May 2018, Kobolev, contrary to the law, issued an order to reward the companyʼs employees, on the basis of which he was paid almost 261 million hryvnias for extraordinary achievements. It is about the positive decision of the Stockholm Arbitration in the gas case of Ukraine against Russia.

"This amount significantly exceeded the normatively defined amounts of such payments (37.48 million hryvnias). In addition, for the same achievements in 2017, exploration companies paid a premium of 12.49 million hryvnias," the NABU said in a statement.

In general, during 2018, according to the investigation, more than 229.25 million hryvnias were illegally paid to Kobolev (the difference between the actually paid bonus and its maximum permissible amount).

In February 2018, the Stockholm Arbitration ordered the Russian Gazprom to pay an additional $4.63 billion to Naftogaz of Ukraine for under-delivered agreed volumes of gas for transit. After that, Naftogazʼs supervisory board decided to pay the companyʼs employees a bonus of $46.3 million (1% of bonuses from the amount of winnings under the transit contract). The amount of the award was divided into two parts. The first in the amount of $20.7 million was received by about 40 people who worked on the arbitration process. The rest of the premium was planned to be paid within three years, subject to the successful collection of the remaining profit ($2.6 billion) from Gazprom.

In 2018, Kobolev was fined 1.7 thousand hryvnias for refusing to provide information about people who received the aforementioned awards.

• On April 28, 2021, the government dismissed the head of Naftogaz Andriy Kobolev and the supervisory board. Before the election of a new board, its functions were to be performed by the current board, but it resigned. The reason for the resignation of the chairman and supervisory board of Naftogaz was given by the government as their unsatisfactory work. Kobolevʼs resignation was criticized by Ukraineʼs Western partners.
• Yurii Vitrenko, who previously served as the Minister of Energy, was appointed as the new head of the company for a period of one year.