The Higher Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) chose a preventive measure in the form of arrest in absentia for the former head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine.
This was reported in the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office (SAP).
The law enforcement officers do not name the suspect, but it follows from the case file that it is Dmytro Sennychenko.
Currently, he is on international wanted list, so the investigating judge will decide on the application of this preventive measure when the suspect is detained and brought to the place of pre-trial investigation.
What is the case?
On March 22, 2023, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) informed the former head of the State Property Fund Dmytro Sennychenko of suspicion. He is suspected of organizing a criminal group, which during 2019-2021 seized more than 500 million hryvnias from the state-owned companies "Odesa Port Plant" and "United Mining and Chemical Company". The amount of bribe received by the members of this "organization" during the entire period of control over the plant exceeds 2 billion hryvnias.
There are two episodes in the case. The first one concerns corruption at the Odesa Port Plant. According to the investigation, at the beginning of 2020, Sennychenko succeeded in electing loyal members of the plantʼs supervisory board, who later appointed a member of a criminal organization as the plantʼs director. From May 2020 to October 2021, the actors in the case illegally continued agreements on the processing of gas into urea and ammonia with companies under their control.
Then they signed a contract with a predetermined company, which agreed to work with the plant under the old conditions, without increasing, and later even decreasing, the amount of compensation to the plant for processing raw materials. Thus, from May to December 2020, the plant lost more than 390 million hryvnias.
The second episode concerns the United Mining and Chemical Company. In October 2020, Dmytro Sennychenko succeeded in appointing a loyal acting director of the company. In compliance with the instructions, during 2020-2021, on behalf of the state-owned enterprise, he deliberately concluded four contracts for the sale of titanium-containing raw materials at a reduced price with a Czech company controlled by Sennichenkoʼs adviser. This product was then resold at market prices. This caused losses to the state of more than 118 million hryvnias.
The equipment of the ex-head of the State Property Fund and his group caused losses to the state of more than 500 million hryvnias.
- Sennychenko headed the State Property Fund in September 2019. In mid-November 2021, it became known that he had written a resignation letter. On January 27, 2022, he could not be released due to a technical failure in the parliament. They were able to vote for it on February 17, 2022.
- In October of the same year, already after the invasion of Russia, Sennichenko was seen on the Cote dʼAzur of France.