Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash was suspected of fraud with fuel, which caused damage to the budget in the amount of UAH 18 billion (more than $485 million). It is reported by RBC with reference to the Ukrainian media.
According to them, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Economic Security Bureau handed suspicions to the businessman and eight top managers of his companies. In the morning, searches are being held at the heads of Firtash’s firms (RGK, Ye Energia) and regional gas distribution companies.
According to investigators, structures controlled by Firtash bought fuel from his own company, but in fact received 30% of the volume. The artificial deficit was covered by state gas, and the businessman appropriated the money. According to the sources of publications, over seven years, such a scheme caused damage to the budget of 18 billion hryvnia (more than $485 million).
In March, the SBU carried out mass searches in 14 gas distribution companies of the Regional Gas Company (RGK), which is part of Firtash’s Group DF, Strana.ua reported. The RGC said that the searches were carried out “on a trumped-up charge of allegedly embezzling state funds.” “In our opinion, the criminal case, which became the reason for the searches, was initiated only with the aim of putting pressure on the enterprises that JSC NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy, represented by GAO Chornomorneftegaz, is trying to seize in a raider way,” the company believes. Conducting searches during hostilities at enterprises that “provide vital services to millions of Ukrainians is a crime against the country,” the RGC added.
Firtash is the founder and owner of Group DF, a group of companies with assets in the energy, banking and chemical industries. In March 2014, he was detained in Austria at the request of the United States, but a week later he was released on bail in the amount of about €125 million. Lawsuits for his extradition to the United States are still ongoing.
In June 2021, the Ukrainian authorities imposed personal sanctions against Firtash. According to Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Ukrainian intelligence found out that the businessman was involved in the titanium business and the supply of raw materials that went to Russian military enterprises. And in May 2022, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine transferred 26 operators of gas distribution systems belonging to Firtash to Naftogaz. Before that, the businessman’s companies accounted for 70% of the domestic gas consumer market in the country.
Source: Rosbalt
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