The former head of the Kharkiv Regional Council is suspected of embezzling over 58 million UAH from "Ukrenergo."

Employees of the Security Service of Ukraine and detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau uncovered a scheme for embezzling over 58 million UAH from "Ukrenergo." This was reported on Tuesday, January 14, by the SBU press service.

According to investigators, the embezzlement scheme was organized in April 2022 by the former head of the Kharkiv Regional Council, who was a council member at the time of the crime and is currently hiding abroad. He involved the founder and director of a private company in Kyiv that trades energy resources. Together, they created three shell companies through which they received electricity from the unified energy system and resold it. Meanwhile, the companies did not pay "Ukrenergo" for the electricity they received.

“The profits obtained from consumers were hidden under the guise of repaying debts to affiliated companies. These 'debt payments' were then transferred to the accounts of another company registered in the Balkans,” the SBU statement reads.

Through these actions, the former deputy of the Kharkiv Regional Council and his accomplices caused "Ukrenergo" losses amounting to 58.44 million UAH.

The SBU and NABU conducted searches at the founder's residence of the Kyiv company and informed him of the suspicion of misappropriation of someone else's property in especially large amounts (part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and legalization (money laundering) of assets obtained through criminal means (part 3 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The former deputy and the company's director received absentia suspicions. The participants in the scheme face up to 12 years in prison.