You're reading: NABU arrests deputy head of Naftogaz

Detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested Naftogaz Deputy Chief Serhiy Pereloma on April 20, the law enforcement body announced.

Pereloma was arrested on two separate charges – creating a criminal organization, and using a government position for personal enrichment during his time at the state-owned SkhidGZK, a Dnipropetrovsk region iron ore enrichment plant.

NABU says that Pereloma oversaw a series of intermediary companies at the Dnipropetrovsk region plant. He is also accused in a separate case of using his position as head of the supervisory board of the Odesa Portside Plant to steal Hr 205 million ($7.6 million) from the facility.

Pereloma’s arrest came shortly after the arrest on April 20 of People’s Front Deputy Mykola Martynenko as part of the same investigation. Martynenko has accused NABU of falsifying evidence against him.

The Naftogaz deputy chief’s arrest was welcomed by some foreign observers.

Timothy Ash, an analyst at Bluebay Asset Management, wrote in a research note that the Ukrainian authorities appear to be trying “to demonstrate that they are serious about addressing graft.”

“This all comes in the run up to the IMF AGM,” he added, referencing the International Monetary Fund’s annual spring meeting.

Pereloma was arrested in July 2016 over the Odesa Portside Plant matter, before being quickly released. Slain journalist Pavel Sheremet wrote in his final column before his assassination about Pereloma’s release, saying that members of the Azov battalion were pressuring the court to release Pereloma and another Odesa Portside Plant official detained in the matter.

“They are slipping away not because the detectives of the anti-corruption bureau and the anti-corruption procurators did their jobs badly,” he wrote. “Quite simply, lawmakers from the military and some other people in camouflage on Friday and Saturday blocked the work of the court and created an atmosphere of insanity around these two cases.”

Gennadiy Kobal, the director of the energy consulting company ExPro Ukraine, told the Kyiv Post in an interview that Pereloma was overseeing the delivery of gas to the Odesa Portside Plant while at Naftogaz.

“This is more of an internal fight against Martynenko’s group of influence,” he said. “It’s probably positive, but we need to see how it all ends.”

NABU will petition Solomensky District Court Judge Oleksandr Bobrovnyk today to set an Hr 100 million ($3.7 million) bail for Pereloma, and approve his pre-trial detention.

A Naftogaz spokeswoman declined to comment.