The Prosecutor General’s Office on Sep. 16 resumed a criminal investigation against Evhen Bakulin, former head of state-owned oil and gas monopoly Naftogaz, after the news on the closure of the case earlier this month triggered a public outcry.
Bakulin’s case is seen as a part of investigative efforts revealing the corrupt schemes used by former president Viktor Yanukovych and his allies before the EuroMaidan Revolution overthrew their regime in February.
A lot has been said about the sabotage of these efforts by prosecutors and judges.
Bakulin, who headed loss-making Naftogaz in 2007 and 2010-2014, is accused of abuse of power. According to the investigators, in 2012 the monopoly supplied oil products and natural gas worth Hr 1.9 billion to two Simferopol-based companies reportedly affiliated with tycoon Serhiy Kurchenko effectively free of charge as the companies have underpaid Hr 1.4 billion for the supplies so far.
The case was closed after the State Fiscal Service audited Naftogaz and didn’t find any violations, according to the court statement for the Prosecutor General’s Office cited by hubs.com.ua, a business news website.
“The inspectors have not found any losses resulting from (buyers’) failure to pay Hr 1.4 billion for the natural gas,” the statement said. However, the debt is registered in accounting documents. Moreover, the court also referred to eyewitness testimony and an expert assessment confirming that Naftogaz incurred no damage.
Previously, the Prosecutor General’s Office closed not just Bakulin’s case, but also those launched against his former deputies – Gennadiy Yuryev and Valentyn Franchuk – and unfroze the assets of all the suspects.
Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema didn’t answer his phone, while his office did not respond to the Kyiv Post’s inquiry to comment on the issue.
Tetyana Chornovol, former chief anti-corruption officer who is now running for parliament, said at a news briefing on Sep. 19 that the closure of the case was a signal for corrupt officials that nothing has changed since the revolution and they could continue following their usual criminal habits.
She said that Bakulin was merely a “technical figure” involved in criminal schemes run by former Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko, Kurchenko, chemicals and energy mogul Dmytro Firtash, former presidential Chief of Staff Serhiy Lyovochkin, chief executive of oil and gas company Ukrgaz-Energo Igor Voronin and Yanukovych himself. She believes that law enforcement agencies want to keep much more influential figures from prosecution.
Kurchenko’s Vetek group did not respond to the Kyiv Post’s e-mailed request for comment, while Boyko and Yanukovych could not be reached, and a spokeswoman for Voronin declined to comment by phone.
“We do not comment on rumors and speculation,” Oleg Arestarkhov, a spokesman for Firtash, said. Lyovochkin mentioned in an instant message that he “did not comment on Chornovol.”
Chornovol claimed that the money raised in supposed criminal deals was spent on the Party of Regions’ 2012 parliamentary campaign, which they won.
The participants of the schemes allegedly involving Bakulin spent some of the cash earned to rent land plots in Luhansk, Odesa and Mykolayiv oblasts, she said. Boyko’s people manage companies located on those lands, according to Chornovol, and try to keep their influence on the local electorate.
There are many technical ways to shut down a criminal case, Daryna Kalenyuk, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, said. “If there is a (politically motivated) instruction to close a case, it’s always possible to find a technical excuse,” she said.
Such decisions are usually made by the top officials of the Interior Ministry, Prosecutor General’s Office and Security Service, Kalenyuk added. Criminal investigations can also be thwarted by courts, like the Pechersky Court in Kyiv, she added.
The closure of the case could have been ordered by Yarema, since the criminal cases against Bakulin and Kurchenko stalled soon after he became prosecutor general in June, unspecified market participants, officials and Bakulin’s acquaintances told Hubs.
Another version is that the case was closed in exchange for the loyalty of Firtash’s Inter television channel to Poroshenko during the upcoming parliamentary election, Hubs said, citing a source at the Fuel and Energy Ministry.
One of the sources also told Hubs that the closure of the case could have been lobbied by the Kremlin. Last year the Anonymous group hacked and leaked e-mails of Ukraine’s Fuel and Energy Ministry that covered Bakulin’s alleged ties to Russia’s Federal Security Service.
Bakulin was arrested on March 21, but in April Kyiv’s Pechersky Court cut the bail from Hr 1.5 billion to Hr 10 million. Therefore, the former Naftogaz head paid the money and left the jail.
It’s not clear whether Bakulin stayed in Ukraine after being released. Chornovol said he left the country, though Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, emphasized that the Border Guard Service reported Bakulin did not cross the border. Meanwhile, Sergiy Katsyuba, a member of Verkhovna Rada, told hubs.com.ua that Bakulin left for Israel to receive medical treatment.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].
