The political force of Petro Poroshenko “European Solidarity” expressed support for the ex-head of Naftogaz Andriy Kobolev. The party considers the criminal proceedings against him politically motivated.
This is stated in the EU statement on March 6.
The trial won by Naftogaz against Gazprom tore up the enslaving agreement and brought billions of dollars to the Ukrainian budget, not losses. It is unfortunate for European Solidarity that anti-corruption bodies are involved in this, designed to fight abuses, and not punish those who opposed abuses in the energy sector. I would not want these actions to result in the formation of distrust in anti-corruption bodies.
Moreover, experts consider the results of the competition for the head of NABU to be non-transparent, and the newly elected leader himself is too close to Bankova. Professionals need to be brought in. And when reforms are punished, cases won in Russia are threatened with prison – this is hardly the motivation for hundreds of successful managers to go to work from the private sector to the public sector, the party said in a statement.
Recall that on March 1, the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court (VAKS) appealed to the former head of the board of Naftogaz, Andrei Kobolev, a bail of UAH 229 million.
The Appellate Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the decision of the court of first instance on the groundlessness of the petition to take Kobolev into custody, applying a preventive measure in the form of bail in the amount of UAH 229 million to him.
According to the decision that the VAKS made earlier, in 2018 Kobolev received UAH 267 million in bonuses. Almost all of this amount is a premium for the victory of Naftogaz over Gazprom in the Stockholm Arbitration: UAH 261 million. According to NABU, the total amount of his bonuses for 2018 exceeded the limit established by law by UAH 229 million.
Also, the following duties were assigned to Kobolev for a period of two months:
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to arrive at every request of the detective, the prosecutor and the court;
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do not leave Kyiv without the permission of the detective, the prosecutor or the court;
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inform the prosecutor, detective or court about the change of residence;
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refrain from communicating with other suspects in the case and witnesses;
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to deposit a passport (passports) with the relevant authority for travel abroad.
According to the court ruling, Kobolev must pay bail within five days from the date of the ruling.
Kobolev wrote on his Facebook page that he is considering his next steps and there are no comments yet. Later, he added that the pledge of UAH 229 million is much more than he can now pay, given the blocking of his accounts by banks.
Earlier, we reported that on January 19, 2023, NABU and SAPO informed Kobolev of suspicion of embezzling more than UAH 229 million in 2018.
According to NABU, Kobolev illegally counted UAH 261 million for himself based on the decision of the supervisory board to pay him a bonus for extraordinary achievements.
This payment was part of the bonuses given to the management of Naftogaz in May 2018 for the company’s historic victory over Russia’s Gazprom in the Stockholm Arbitration Court.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.