The panel of judges of the Higher Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) decided to close the "Rotterdam+" case due to the expiration of the pre-trial investigation period (Clause 10, Part 1, Article 284 of the Criminal Procedure Code).
The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office (SAP) disagrees with the decision and will appeal it in the appeals court, the press service writes. They also add that the HACC decision was made by one judge.
"Rotterdam+" case
The "Rotterdam+" formula has been used by the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities (NСSREPU) since April 2016. It set the tariff for thermal power plants based on the average price of coal at import parity for the last year. After that, electricity prices increased — the tariff in Ukraine was tied to the price of coal on the commodity exchanges of the Netherlands. In March 2017, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) began to investigate the conspiracy during the implementation of the "Rotterdam+" formula.
According to the assessment of the investigation, the formula led to losses for electricity consumers in the amount of 19.357 billion hryvnias during 2016-2017. The version of the investigation is that in "Rotterdam+" expenses were laid that did not actually exist, namely, for the transportation of coal of the national producer to thermal power plants from the port in Rotterdam.
In September 2022, the investigation of the first episode of the "Rotterdam+" case, based on the suspicion of six persons involved, was completed. In January 2023, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutorʼs Office completed the investigation of the second episode of suspicion against 15 people in the case.