Kobolev was informed about the suspicion of bonuses
The head of Naftogaz Ukrainy is suspected of embezzling funds, writes ZN
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau, together with the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, informed the former Chairman of the Board of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine Andriy Kobolev about suspicion of embezzling more than UAH 229 million in 2018.
By data Investigators, the head of the company, who headed the NAC in 2014-2021, in May 2018, contrary to the requirements of the law, issued an order to reward the company’s employees, on the basis of which he was paid almost UAH 261 million (the equivalent of USD 10 million) for extraordinary achievements. We are talking about a positive decision in the case of a contract for the sale of natural gas in 2009-2019.
The NABU emphasizes that this amount significantly exceeded the normatively determined amounts of such payments (UAH 37.48 million). In addition, for the same achievements, the ex-heads of the company were paid a bonus of UAH 12.49 million even in 2017.
“In general, in 2018, according to the investigation, the suspect was illegally paid at the expense of the company more than UAH 229.25 million (the difference between the actually paid premium and its maximum allowable amount),” the NABU noted.
Recall that in 2018 the Supervisory Board of Naftogaz voted for the payment of bonuses to the company’s board for the victory in the Stockholm arbitration over the Russian monopoly Gazprom. The amount of bonuses was 1% of the winnings.
February 28, 2018 Stockholm Arbitration satisfied Naftogaz’s demands for compensation in the amount of $4.63 billion for gas volumes not supplied by Gazprom for transit. According to the results of two arbitration proceedings in Stockholm, the Russian gas monopolist had to pay $2.56 billion in favor of Naftogaz.
As ZN.UA wrote, in 2018 Kobolev received UAH 207 million ($7.9 million). He converted all the funds received into US dollars and deposited them into an account with Oschadbank. Subsequently, he transferred these funds to the account of his mother living in the United States, indicating the purpose of the transfer “helping the family.”
