The National Anti-corruption Bureau (NABU) declared in absentia about the suspicion of the former MP from "Peopleʼs Front" Heorhii Lohvynsky, who is suspected of embezzling 54 million hryvnias from the state budget through the "Golden Mandarin" ["Zolotyi Mandarin"] company.
Ex-MP became the seventh suspect in the so-called "Golden Mandarin" case, according to NABU.
This became possible due to the termination of the former MPʼs immunity, which he had as a relative of a judge of the ECtHR.
The suspect — Lohvynsky — was informed in absentia, as the former parliamentarian left Ukraine even before he lost his immunity as the husband of ECtHR judge Hanna Yudkivska.
His actions were qualified under Part 5 of Art. 191 (appropriation of property) and Part 3 of Art. 209 (money laundering) of the Criminal Code.
According to the investigation, during 2013-2016, Lohvynsky developed and implemented a scheme to seize 54 million hryvnias from the state budget, deceiving the ECtHR regarding the dispute between "Golden Mandarin Oil" LLC and "Kyivenergo" PJSC.
The company "Golden Mandarin Oil" is associated with Lohvinsky.
In September 2013, a representative of "Mandarin" sent a statement to the ECtHR to recover from the state budget 54.179 million hryvnias as unpaid debts of PJSC "Kyivenergo" according to a court decision, which, apparently, since 2009, the executive service bodies have not implemented.
The NABU detectives found out that at the time of the application to the ECtHR, all of "Golden Mandarin" property and accounts were seized due to debts to the state JSC "Rodovid Bank" for more than 70 million hryvnias, and the director of this company was held criminally liable for fraud.
The suspects also hid from the court the fact that "Golden Mandarin" on the eve of the appeal to the ECtHR ceded its rights of claim to PJSC "Kyivenergo" in favor of another company and received 54.18 million hryvnias for it.
The investigation believes that Lohvynsky then made an agreement with the leadership of the Ministry of Justice, and the government commissioner for ECHR affairs signed a declaration with the company of the ex-MP on "friendly settlement of the dispute" and actually admitted the stateʼs fault for not complying with the courtʼs decision.
On the basis of this declaration, 54.179 million hryvnias were re-transferred in favor of "Mandarin", but this time from the state budget: "The specified funds using the services of conversion centers will be legalized in the future."
The NABU detectives started the investigation in June 2017, and in January 2020, six participants of the scheme were informed of the suspicion. Lohvynsky became the seventh.